Count Your Blessings
by BlueWolfTwilight
Summary: After the events of "Tally Up Your Sins," you and Sans have to learn to live with your pasts and figure out how to move forward, all while unraveling a mystery that dates back to the first war between humans and monsters. (Part 2 of the "Still Counting" series) (Rated T for: body horror, graphic violence)
1. Bloodfeather

((A/N: ATTENTION! "Count Your Blessings" is a sequel to "Tally Up Your Sins." I beg of you, please read TUYS before this! Even the first sentence of this fic contains spoilers for the first, so you've been warned!

I wasn't planning on posting this on this website until it was finished, but I got a surprising number of people on here asking me about the sequel. The main reason I posted "Tally Up Your Sins" on this site was because I heard rumors of people stealing fics from AO3 and posting them on FF, so, since TUYS is semi-popular on AO3 and at risk of being stolen, I figured I'd post it here before anyone could do that to me. But I didn't realize there was such a strong Undertale presence on this site! So I guess I'll post CYB here as I write it; it's not like it's much trouble, just one extra step. Feel free to read here or on AO3; my AO3 account username is "BlueTwilight"

If you want to follow me on Tumblr, my url is "bluewuf" and the tag for this fic is "CYB"

Lastly (and I promise I won't put long author's notes like this in every chapter), please leave reviews! I'd really appreciate it, because they're part of what motivates me to write. Thanks!))

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"Ah, heh, you must be confused! For, you see, I, The Great Papyrus, do not have any brothers!"

With those words, Sans shut down. You felt him slip out of control, into the back of your collective mind.

 _Sans?_ You probed, but he was silent. He'd closed himself off, completely barricading his thoughts from you. It was disconcerting, being relatively alone after months of Sans' consciousness constantly pressing against yours, for better or for worse. You pushed against him, metaphorically, but to no avail. Sans was much better at this mental stuff than you, and if he didn't want you to know what he was feeling, then there was nothing you could do. Frustrated, you pounded on his defenses. You hadn't even wanted to come here in the first place, and now he was just going to leave you when things started to look bad? If everyone really had forgotten all about Sans, how were you even going to begin to explain your situation to them?

Meanwhile, for the first time, no one was controlling the body. It sat, idle, where Sans had left it; gripping Papyrus' arms for dear life. You would have forgotten entirely about the physical world, had a new voice not shaken you into alertness.

"Hey, who's this? Paps, is this guy giving you trouble?" With a great effort, you tore yourself away from your futile attempts to break down Sans' mental walls, steeling yourself to clean up whatever mess your partner had gotten the two of you in.

"Ah, no! They're just-" You had only a split second to survey the situation, noticing that Undyne had appeared over Papyrus' shoulder and was glaring at you suspiciously, before a small creature came barrelling out of the depths of house to tackle you in a hug.

You gasped in surprise, finally letting go of Papyrus and blinking down at the newcomer. They were so short that they could only reach far enough to wrap their arms around your legs. In your dazed and confused state, it took you a moment to recognize the blue and purple striped sweater.

"...Frisk?" The child craned their neck to look up at you, a happy little smile on their face.

"You fixed it!" Their voice was quiet, but they sounded pleased. You held up your hands, unsure what to do with them.

"Uh…." You were bad with kids. Like, really bad. You pleaded silently for Sans to come back and deal with this in your stead, but he didn't answer.

"Oh! Do you two know each other?!" Papyrus asked excitedly. But, before you could think of an answer, someone else appeared from within the house.

"My child, who is this?" A kind-looking, goat-like woman asked, peering over Papyrus' shoulder to get a look at you. You'd never met her before, but you knew who she was right away.

Overwhelmed, you stumbled back as soon as Frisk let go of you. You hunched over and clasped your hands in front of you in a nervous gesture. Your wings quivered, and a couple of feathers fell out at once.

"I… this is… a mistake… I should…" Fisk made a wordless noise of protest and lunged forward to grab your hand. The relatively normal hand, not the one with the talons. Feeling their tiny, warm hand in your own quickly shut you up. You hadn't had physical contact with anyone, human or monster, in months. Frisk's flesh felt soft and unbearably fragile. You froze, not squeezing back or pulling away for fear of hurting them.

Gently, they tugged you forward, back up to the doorway, and into the house. Undyne, Papyrus, and Toriel all parted to let you through. Frisk made rapid motions with their free hand as they led you through the house. You barely registered being tugged through a living room full of unpacked boxes and into a kitchen area. Forgetting to duck, you knocked your forehead on the archway connecting the two rooms. You winced, rubbing your head and allowing yourself to be ushered into a chair by Frisk. Now that both of their hands were free, they turned to face the other monsters, their fingers dancing in the air rapidly. You recognized it as sign language, but had no idea what the child was saying. Sans knew sign, but he wasn't around to translate for you.

Uncomprehending, you stared at your hosts, eyes flickering nervously from Frisk to the other three. Everyone's eyes went wide as they watched Frisk's hands; Toriel even brought a hand up to cover her mouth. You stomach twisted into anxious knots. Even Papyrus was uncharacteristically quiet.

"My child, are you sure? This seems… well… quite unbelievable." Frisk frowned and put their hands on their hips. Obviously, they were quite sure. Then, as if the kitchen couldn't have gotten more crowded, Alphys entered with a huge, furry monster who you'd only ever seen in 2D.

"What is going- oh!" Asgore's deep, rumbling voice was cut off as he noticed you, sitting hunched over in your chair. "Howdy! I'm sorry, I don't recognize you. Who are you?"

"Frisk says they are the combination of a monster and a human." Toriel whispered, and both she and Asgore looked uncomfortable. You wrung your hands together, massaging your talons with your normal fingers. This was awkward, especially because you had no idea what Frisk had just said about you. Everyone was talking _about_ you, but no one was talking _to_ you. Frisk made a quick hand motion, which you had no idea how to interpret.

"Ah, oh no… how did this happen?" Asgore asked, concerned, "Did a monster get past the human guards?" You assumed he meant the soldiers who guarded the outer border of the plot of land the humans had given to the monsters.

"Of course not, no one could have gotten past them," Toriel snapped at Asgore, who looked cowed, "There is no way this monster is any sort of hybrid. My child, you must be confused… have you eaten anything funny lately?" Toriel put a hand to Frisk's forehead, who swatted her away irritably.

"This must be just a teensy misunderstanding! Besides, Frisk also said that I have a long-lost brother, which I do not! I think I would know if I did. After all, there is nothing that the Great Papyrus does not know about himself! Nyeh heh… heh?" Frisk made a face at Papyrus, who looked a little unsure of himself despite his boasting.

Suddenly, Undyne pushed Papyrus aside, moving to stand at the front of the group.

"Nghaa! Let's just settle this!" She made a sharp, beckoning motion with her hand. You flinched back when you heard the three, telltale clicks. You couldn't have stopped your soul from bursting from your chest, even if you'd wanted to. But the results were… unexpected.

Instead of being a solid lilac color, your heart-shaped soul was encased with a layer of pure white, with the usual purple heart at the center. There was a clear distinction between the white and the purple; it was like the white soul had completely engulfed the purple one. They pulsed in time with one another, sending waves of raw, invisible energy through the tiny kitchen. The force of it sent a couple of the smaller bystanders staggering back. It was… distressing for you to look at, and even more distressing to have everyone staring at it.

"'Scuse you." You grunted, bringing your hand up to shield your mutated soul from view. You pressed it back into your chest, shuddering a little as it disappeared into your ribcage. Everyone stared at you; Alphys was openly gaping, and even Undyne had lost steam. Frisk tried to say something with their hands, but nobody was looking at them.

"How did this happen?" Toriel broke the silence, giving you a stern look. You shrugged and your wings twitched, irritated.

"Short story? Your brother," You nodded at Papyrus, who looked very confused as to what was going on, "absorbed my soul to cross th' barrier." You looked from person to person, waiting for someone to challenge you. Eventually, Papyrus spoke meekly,

"But… I don't have a brother…?"

"Ya do, you jus' don't remember." He wrung his hands together, looking doubtful. "Ever feel like there was somethin' missin'? In your life, or…?" His eyes shifted from side to side, and he mumbled something unintelligible. You took that as a yes. "When we crossed th' Barrier… it… uh… erased both of us from everyone's memories. Alphys," You turned to the scientist, who looked startled to have been addressed, "you ever think there was somethin' weird about th' Barrier?" She blushed as all eyes turned to her, and stammered,

"W-well, it has some properties that su-suggest that it may be a-a link between two separate realities. I once did a study on how matter reacts when exposed to it, and the laws of physics seem to break down…" You gave her a big smile, glad that, even in this timeline, she still believed you.

"Exactly." Unfortunately, everyone else was giving you blank stares. You supposed you weren't explaining this very well. Before you could say any more, Frisk jumped up and tugged on Toriel's sleeve. They signed something urgently to the goat woman, who furrowed her brow.

"Frisk tells me you helped destroy the Barrier… is that true?" She asked you, her voice stern but not unkind. You weren't sure if you could rightly take credit for _that_ , but if it improved the monsters' opinions of you, you were all for it.

"Yeah, 'suppose so." Everyone began to whisper among themselves, their quiet murmurs coalescing into a vague buzzing noise that was impossible for you to understand. Suddenly, you remembered something. You turned to Frisk and asked quietly, "Chara?" They grimaced and signed something at you, but you shook your head helplessly. "Kid, I can't understand ya." They pouted, puffing out their cheeks in an adorably frustrated way, then tapped their own head. You frowned. "Still in there, huh?" Frisk nodded sadly. You got the message. Seeing your simple exchange, everyone else stopped talking amongst themselves.

"Alright, not to break up this touching reunion, but what the _heck_ is going on?!" Undyne flared her fins and put her hands on her hips. You faced her, sitting up a little straighter. You felt a little more confident, knowing that Frisk seemed to have your back.

"I'm th' reason you're all walking on th' surface right now. Sans and I saved you all, but you don' remember any of it." At your side, Frisk nodded vigorously. You felt your confidence bolstered even more. Undyne looked incredulous as she turned to Alphys,

"Babe, is that possible?" Ah, right, you'd forgotten; Undyne and Alphys were dating in this timeline. Remembering how they'd argued when you'd been down there yourself made you glad things had worked out this way, instead. Alphys bit her lip,

"U-uh… I d-don't know… maybe?" Frisk groaned and flopped onto the chair next to yours dramatically. You had to grin at their exasperation; they were obviously not enjoying this back-and-forth debate.

"If Frisk says that this is the case, then I think it would be wise to believe them." Asgore spoke up, his voice holding a kind of quiet authority over the rest of the crowd. He smiled kindly at you. "I do not fully understand what you did to contribute to our freedom, but I would like to thank you for it nonetheless. Please, if there is anything we can do for you, just ask. You are more than welcome to stay, and we can discuss all of this over a nice cup of tea." The king was being very nice, but you shook your head. Perhaps Sans had come here to reconnect with friends and chat about life, but Sans wasn't there at the moment. On the other hand, you had no interest in overstaying your welcome, and had only one motive for agreeing to come here in the first place.

"No, thanks. But, now that you mention it… I have got one request." You squared your shoulders, and would have stood up if you hadn't been afraid of hitting your head on the ceiling again. "You all owe me. You owe us. Whether you realize it, or not." You looked from person to person, fixing them each with a serious look from your blank eyes and speaking as clearly as you could manage, "I am goin' to get my body back, and you're all goin' to help me do it."


	2. I Know What You Did Last Summer

67 DAYS EARLIER…

The stars twinkled at you, taking the edge off of your internal panic if only for a moment. Your eyes were fixated on the three bright beacons that made up Orion's belt. Everything smelled and sounded and _felt_ so different, so foreign, so…

Breathe. Look at the stars. At least they hadn't changed. As if instinctively sensing your longing to be near them, your body took a few, fumbling steps forward. It strained up, stretching toward the sky desperately. Some part of you brushed the ground. Your… arms? No, wait, your arms were right in front of you, holding…

Something rustled in the bushes. You wouldn't have cared, but whatever force was in control of your body did. If you'd had a voice, you would have cried out in agony when your attention was forcibly wrenched from the sky, focusing instead on the shrubbery in front of you.

"Who's there?" You asked. But, no, wait… you hadn't said that, had you? The more you regained consciousness, the more frightened you became. What happened? You tried to yell, to flail, but nothing happened. You'd died, right? You remembered that. So then what was…

A pained groan escaped your body. It hunched over and bowed its head, eyes shut tight.

"Stop screaming. Just let me think." You stopped. Was your body… talking to you? And where was-

Oh.

 _Sans?_ You asked, squirming as you did so. You tried to wiggle your fingers, or even just _look_ at your fingers, but to no avail.

"Yeah, now can you please stop so I can think-" Suddenly, from out of the bushes, stepped a familiar figure. Your body… Sans… jerked to awareness. A fearful huff of breath escaped from him. You tried to lend him your strength and, to your surprise, it seemed to work. He raised his hackles, his grip tightening on the load in his arms.

"Chara." He addressed the child standing in front of the both of you.

"How did this happen?" Chara frowned and stomped their foot, brandishing the true knife in front of them. Sans flinched. "It doesn't make any sense. How did you steal your soul back?" Sans gulped and trembled. The two of you were running out of courage in the face of this child who haunted both of your nightmares. But, having a common enemy did bring with it a sense of unity. You felt less uncomfortable sitting in the passenger seat, and more present in the situation. Chara seemed to notice the vulnerability in Sans' expression, and put on a big, face-splitting smile. "Go on, then. I would really, really love to know."

"None of your business." Sans mumbled, taking a step back. Chara followed him, tilting the knife so that it glinted threateningly in the light of the moon.

"Sans? Is that you?" They asked, sounding amused. Sans said nothing, eyeing the knife with wide-eyed fear. Chara took that as an answer. "It is! Shame, I like the other one better. They're so much easier to manipulate."

You felt, vaguely, that you'd just been insulted. Should you have been offended? After all, this kid was… what? Eight years old?

"Shut up. You're, like, eight." Sans commented, and you started. Was he reading your thoughts?

Chara laughed uproariously. It was so funny to them that a tear rolled down their cheek. They took a few, quick steps forward, and Sans backtracked so fast that he almost fell over backwards. It only made Chara laugh harder.

You had an idea. Maybe you couldn't have controlled the body, but you could communicate with Sans. He could still take control of the situation, which was quickly spiralling out of control.

 _Sans._ You thought firmly, feeling strange now that you were trying to communicate telepathically. _Don't back up any further, or you'll walk right back through the barrier._ You weren't sure if it was even possible to go back through that way, but you didn't want to find out. _Take a deep breath and get ready to fight._ Sans took your advice, his chest expanding and deflating in a more even, controlled manner. _You've beaten them hundreds of times before, and now, they can't reload a save. They're just a kid, you can kick their ass!_ You encouraged him, your own confidence bolstered the more you thought about it. He nodded and squared his shoulders, gathering himself. The weight in his arms shifted. Without prompting from you, he carefully set the load down on the ground and stepped over it, all without ever looking at it.

"Walk away, Chara." He spoke, his voice considerably steadier than before. Chara wiped their eyes, their laughter dying off. "You can't save anymore. You won't win this fight." The child clasped their hands in front of them, swinging one foot back and forth to kick the grass beneath their feet.

"I know. I have to try, though. If I don't, you're going to reset everything. That was your plan, right?" They smiled sweetly, craning their neck in order to look you and Sans in the eyes. "I don't know how you do what you do, but I know you can't erase this world right now. You would've done it already." Chara took a step forward, brandishing the knife menacingly. "And I can't let that happen."

Sans took another deep breath, and did… something strange. Something that caused your left eye to burn and your body to hum with energy. You'd never felt anything like it before. It was like something was stirring from within your bones, and Sans was drawing it out. The closest experience you could've likened it to was having your soul pulled out from your body, but it wasn't quite the same. Even so, you hastily tried to reign it back in. This was something unknown, and so your instinctive reaction was to make it stop, to control it. The burning in your eye died down, but didn't disappear completely. Sans grunted and clenched his hands into fists.

"Stop it. Let me handle this; you don't know what you're doing." Whatever unity the two of you had mustered before was wavering. Chara grinned.

"What, having trouble communicating? I can relate. Asriel could be a real pain, sometimes." They crouched, ready to spring, "Do keep arguing, won't you? It'll only make my job easier." With that, they lunged.

Sans gasped and barely managed to dodge out of the way. He nearly tripped, unused to all the extra height. Out of fear, you surged up, struggling to overtake the body. A low growl ripped from Sans' throat.

"Stop! You're making it worse! AAAHG!" Sans roared and jerked forward, a sharp pain ripping through his back. You felt it, too, and heard the rip of a knife tearing through cloth. Hearing a child's laugh, Sans' whirled around. The sound sent a shiver down his injured spine. Chara just stood there, right where you had been moments ago. Right next to...

"Huh. You must've gained some HP since last we met. Interesting." Chara looked down and nudged the body - _your_ body, oh god - with their foot. "After I kill you, I think I'll put a few more holes in this one. I've heard that human intestines are as long as a bus. Maybe I'll find out…" Between you and Sans, your combined anger was a force to be reckoned with.

"GET AWAY FROM THEM!" This time, when your eye burned, you did your best not to fight it. It went against every instinct you had but, when the invisible force surged in your body, you allowed it to brush against your very soul. Sans shot out his hand and flicked it to the left, throwing Chara away from the still-bleeding corpse. The child hit the ground hard, but they were up again in a flash. With his still-outstretched hand, Sans made a beckoning motion. A red heart emerged from Chara's chest. You had an intimate knowledge of how vulnerable they undoubtedly felt, and it made you feel incredibly powerful.

Quick on their feet, Chara took another stab at you. Sans dodged out of the way nimbly. A low, rumbling laugh filled the air, and you just _knew_ you wouldn't lose. You felt magic at your fingertips. Something huge loomed behind you, but Sans didn't bother to turn and look at it. Chara's wide eyes told you enough.

In an impressive show of dexterity, Chara ducked and rolled out of the way just before the blaster went off, their red heart hovering close in front of them. Before they could get in another attack, Sans summoned a second blaster seemingly from nowhere and took another shot, which they narrowly avoided. Chara's soul turned blue just as Sans shot out his arm, holding them down with one hand while the other directed the two blasters to fire one after the other. The child struggled to move out of the way under the weight of Sans' blue magic, and hissed in pain when they couldn't quite dodge fast enough.

"Are we having fun now?" Sans asked, his voice low and dangerous. Magic crackled in the air, or perhaps that was just the crisp smell of burnt shrubbery that'd had the misfortune of being in the blasters' line of fire. Despite being hurt, Chara gave Sans a big smile and ran at him again.

As Sans continued this pattern of dodging and attacking, you tried your best not to get in the way. You didn't want to distract him or mess with his magic again. This involved dissociating yourself from the fight; or, at least attempting to. It was rather hard to ignore what was going on when you saw and felt everything that Sans saw and felt. Whenever he narrowly avoided an attack, you, too, felt a surge of fear. And whenever his attacks hit, you felt his grim determination and sense of power.

After only minutes, the battlefield was littered with spent bones and charred grass. The only place that was safe was the immediate area around your body, which Sans steadfastly avoided. Chara took advantage of his reluctance to go near the corpse by darting in front of it, forcing Sans to stop mid-attack and giving them time to lunge at him with their knife. Sans only gritted his teeth and upped the ante - summoning a third and fourth blaster to add to his arsenal.

Eventually, after wearing his opponent down to the point where their heart looked ready to burst, Sans struck a killing blow. It was over quickly; Chara made the mistake of tripping on a bone and, before they could've possibly recovered, Sans' four blasters loomed over them.

 _Wait!_ You cried, but too late. A roaring explosion echoed down the mountain, sending birds scattering into the sky from faraway trees. By the time the blasters were finished, there was little left of the child's body but a mound of ashes.

Sans let out a huge breath of air, dropping his arms and letting the weapons fade away into nothingness. He swayed on his feet, exhausted. Everything was unbearably quiet.

 _Y-you killed them._ Your soul trembled in your body. Far off in the distance, a single crow cawed. _We… we killed a kid. Frisk was in there!_ You exclaimed, horrified. Yes, Chara had been trying to kill you, but still. It was jarring; one minute, they'd been there, very much alive, and the next…

"Yup." Sans turned away and walked, stiffly, back toward your body. "Now you know how I felt every time you made me…" He paused, then bent down and gently picked up the corpse. It was still limp, but quite a bit cooler than when you'd last held it. You felt nauseous.

 _It… we… we'll reset, though. Frisk will be okay. It'll be okay._ Sans said nothing to that, just kept on walking down the mountain with your body in his arms, as though nothing had happened. Weakly, you tried to take charge again, but Sans was securely in control. He easily batted you away.

 _Why do you still have that thing, anyway?_ You asked tiredly. _Just… I dunno… bury it, or something. I don't want to look at it anymore._ Sans shook his head.

"We're keeping it. We're going to reset, wait for everyone to come out of the Underground, and get Toriel to heal it. You'll have your body back, I'll have my body back, everything will be back to normal." For a moment, you were shocked into silence. When had he come up with such a ludicrous- "It's not _ludicrous_ ," He replied to your thoughts with a huff, "Toriel has healing magic. I remember it, from the other timelines. She'll fix you right up." You were careful not to think anything that might upset Sans' already frayed nerves, but it was hard to do in the face of such a ridiculous plan.

 _Why didn't you tell me you were planning to do this?_ You asked, careful not to sound too accusing. _This isn't like you, are you okay?_ Sans laughed bitterly, stumbling over his own clumsy feet as he walked.

"Funny. The dead kid's asking me if _I'm_ okay." He pulled your body up closer to his chest, the appendages on his back shifting restlessly. "You told me to do somethin' about my problems, well, now I'm doing somethin' about them." His face turned toward the sky, which was getting lighter on the horizon. The stars were all but gone, now.

You were quiet. It was true, you _had_ said that. Well, you'd been rather soulless at the time, but it was still you. You were glad he was taking action, but the no-nonsense, get-it-done attitude didn't fit him, and left you with a bad taste in your mouth.

"And as for your first question… well, uh, you were kinda busy last week. I didn't want you to worry about it." He shrugged his shoulders, causing a couple drops of blood to dislodge from the muscle there. Jeez, this body was messed up. You'd have to get a better look at it later.

He was right again, though; you had been busy last week. Busy avoiding thinking about what was waiting for you after death. You hadn't really considered that there might be a way back from the dead. The thought of returning to your real body, it…

Well, to be cliché, it filled you with determination.

 _There's an abandoned barn, on the other side of the mountain. I hiked past it the day I fell into the Underground. Maybe we could stay there?_ Sans brought his eyes forward again, no longer watching the sunrise. He nodded slowly.

"I'll see if I can find a shortcut."

After finding the barn, you directed Sans to lay your body in the long, wooden trough that looked like it had once been used for feeding pigs. Once he obliged, you informed him that he needed to go find ice. A lot of ice.

"What for?" He asked, already looking for a helpful shortcut.

 _It… it's going to start decomposing. Unless we freeze it._ You shivered. Talking about your own rotting body was uncomfortable, to say the least. _A real freezer would be better, but I don't think we'll have that luxury._

"Why do we need to freeze it? Even if it starts… going bad… Toriel can just fix it." Sans felt your own flash of irritation, and he clicked his jaw.

 _We don't know that! Even if she can heal a dead body, I want to make it as easy on her as possible._ Sans huffed, but didn't argue. God, if the two of you had to be locked in the same body for any significant length of time… it was going to be hell. You were beginning to understand why he was so desperate to get you your body back. You just weren't going to work well together; both of you hated to admit you were wrong, and both of you were opposed to doing what other people told you to do. Putting the two of you in control of the same body was like the premise for some kind of bad sitcom.

Before you knew what was happening, you suddenly found yourself in a different place. You were behind a building of some sort. Judging by the cart return slots in the distant parking lot, it was some kind of store.

 _What the hell, Sans! We can't let anyone see us!_ You hissed. He seemed to take some pleasure in listening to your frantic thoughts. The bastard.

"Relax. No one's around. Besides, that thing says 'ice'." Sure enough, once you got over the fact that you were a _freaking giant skeleton hanging out in a public place_ , you noticed there was an ice storage machine not two feet away. With his long legs, Sans only had to take one step before he was standing right in front of it. He hunched over, taking the padlock in his hand with a frown. He tugged on it experimentally. Both of you were startled when it broke off with a loud _SNAP!_ The new body was very strong, apparently. You made a mental note to be careful with that, if you ever actually managed to get control over it.

You were getting better at discerning your own feelings from Sans', and Sans definitely felt distinctly uncomfortable at the idea of you taking control of the body. _Well, it would make some things easier if we could switch off._ You pointed out as Sans hefted four bags of ice onto his shoulders. The frigid cold felt nice on your exposed muscles.

"Like what?" Sans grunted as he turned around, stepping back through his shortcut after hopefully having not been noticed by any stray humans. He trudged back to the barn, the hot summer sun beating down on his spine.

 _Like... resetting the game._ You had plenty of experience with that, after all.

"I think I can work a computer, thanks." Once he made it back to the trough, he tore open one of the bags of ice with his teeth. He hesitated. "Just dump it in, then? It won't hurt you?"

 _I can't get much more hurt, to be honest._ You pointed out. _So, yeah. Just pour it all in._ He tipped the bag of ice, slowly emptying it into the trough. The sound of ice bouncing off of your limp body was not one you'd forget anytime soon. After emptying three bags into the container, the corpse was completely covered. Sans set the extra bag on the ground and laid himself down on top of it, groaning in relief as his inflamed, injured back touched the blissfully cold ice.

You hadn't really felt the pain of the knife-inflicted wound for a while, but, now that Sans was focused on it, you felt it throbbing achily. Sans brought a hand up to his spine, massaging his own cracked vertebrae. You considered bringing up your unfinished conversation, but thought it best to just leave it for another time. A time when you weren't exhausted and nursing an injury, preferably.

 _We should probably go track down my computer._ You mentioned, and Sans sighed.

"Give me like, two hours. I just need some silence." Personally, you wanted to get this reset over with as soon as possible, but you complied. You tried to make yourself as quiet as possible while Sans rested, and you thought it was working. Slowly, he relaxed, sinking into the ice pack with a sigh. You barely managed not to freak out when he closed his eyes, causing you to go blind, too. His breathing became slow and rhythmic, and you wondered if he had already fallen asleep.

 _Sans?_ You probed, slightly amused that he'd managed to doze off so quickly. He didn't reply, except to mumble some gibberish out loud. How was it possible for one of you to be sleeping while the other was awake?

Carefully, you tried to take control of the body. You concentrated all of you energy on opening your eyes, but to no avail. The body just wouldn't respond to you. _What if I'm stuck like this forever?_ You wondered, but nobody answered. Sans really was out like a light.

Getting the computer back had been a stealth mission, albeit a surprisingly easy one. You gave Sans your address and figured out how to communicate a mental picture of your bedroom to him, which was where you'd last seen your computer. Sans had to walk miles through rugged terrain and travel through multiple shortcuts to find one that led to your room, but that had been by far the most difficult part. Once you'd gotten there late at night, you found your room to be exactly how you'd left it two months ago. All of your things were strewn hastily around on the floor and the bed, most of it still packed in duffle bags and boxes. You'd only been home from college for a day before you left for the camping trip, so you hadn't had time to unpack.

You'd directed Sans to your desk, telling him to move quietly so as not to wake your parents. Even though your bedroom door was closed, you could've swore you heard your dad snoring in the room across the hall.

After that, you'd gone quiet for a while. You hadn't even realized you were doing it, but you must've retreated far into your own mind since you didn't remember anything from the walk back. You didn't even remember actually picking up the computer.

 _Why didn't you, I dunno, shake me or something?_ You asked Sans, your tone quite distressed. _I wanted to look around my room some more, grab some of my stuff._

"I tried, but you weren't listening to me. And I couldn't exactly yell out your name when we were a stone's throw away from your parents." He pulled back the door to the barn, your small laptop and charger tucked under his arm. "Don't do that disappearing thing again. You scared me." Truth be told, you didn't know why you'd disappeared or where you'd gone. It felt like you'd passed out, like your mind just shut itself off.

Maybe you just couldn't handle seeing your old room again. Being that close to your family and not being able to talk to them...

 _Do you think they looked for me?_ You asked quietly. Sans knelt on the dusty floor, opening up the laptop.

"I'm sure they did." He said, reassuringly. You knew it was an empty platitude; Sans didn't know anything about your parents, how could he have known if they'd looked for you or not? But it helped, anyway.

"Alright, what do I do?" You snapped out of your thoughts, focusing on the task at hand. Quietly, you directed him to open up Undertale. You still had a shortcut to it on your desktop, despite not playing it in years.

Sans watched, enraptured, as the intro cutscene played. _You can skip it by hitting 'z,' if you want._ You suggested, but he ignored you. You felt distinctly uncomfortable, watching what you now knew was a true story. By the time you reached the save file screen, you felt twitchy and anxious.

"Chara, LV 5." Sans read out loud, unhelpfully.

 _I know, just reset already._ There was a strange energy in the air as Sans moved over to the "Reset" button, like static electricity. You thought your hair would have stood on end, if you had any. It was similar to how you'd felt just before regaining your soul, except more… foreboding. Sans hit "z," and the game gave you one last chance to back out. "A name has already been chosen," it prompted, with the name "Chara" trembling violently in the middle of the screen. "Yes" and "No" were the only options.

"Why that name, by the way?" You weren't sure if Sans was stalling, or if he was genuinely curious.

 _Because 'character' wouldn't fit._ You answered honestly, an anxious edge to your voice. Despite the tense situation, Sans almost laughed. You felt it bubbling in his chest.

"How original."

 _Yes, very. Now can we please just do this?_ Sans moved over to highlight the word "Yes," but hesitated. You mentally groaned.

"You sure we're doing the right thing? It just feels… wrong, somehow." To be fair, it wasn't just Sans. You felt it too. But you'd come all this way; you couldn't stop now, just based on a feeling. Sans nodded resolutely, even though you hadn't consciously said anything.

When, finally, Sans hit the button, the heavy, static energy disappeared immediately. The two of you waited there, frozen, for an indeterminant amount of time, but there was no fanfare. The intro played multiple times over; neither of you dared to hit any buttons. After a long moment, Sans spoke over the music,

"So, that easy, huh?" He sounded defeated. In his mind, you caught a glimpse of him picturing you doing the same thing after a pacifist run. You kept the real memory safely guarded, determined to never let him see it.

 _Hold 'escape' to quit._ Sans did as you told, and shut the laptop with a sense of finality.

After that, you waited. You waited patiently for Frisk to do their thing and break the barrier, because nothing could move forward until then. In fact, it almost felt like time stood still for you and Sans. Of course, it didn't really; days went by, and the heat of summer reached its peak. Sans was forced to go out and get new bags of ice on an almost daily basis, and you had the idea to drill a hole in the bottom of the trough so as to drain the melted ice. You made sure to keep the trough full enough that your body was always covered. Because that way, it would stay cold, and you'd never have to look at it again.

During this waiting period, you and Sans discovered more things about your… unique situation. As both of you got better at showing each other mental images, you started to do it unconsciously, even in your sleep. Often, one of you would fall asleep while the other stayed awake and got a showcase of what the other was dreaming. Sometimes, it was funny; like when Sans dreamt of swimming in a sea of hot dogs, or the time when you had a dream about showing up to class without your pants. But most of the time, it was uncomfortable, if not terrifying. Sans tended to have nightmares about… well, take your pick. His brother dying, himself dying, you dying. You were surprised, how often that last one featured. You, on the other hand, had more vague, muddled nightmares. The feeling of blood draining down your leg, the sense of something squeezing your throat tightly, being trapped in an enclosed space. Once, when both of you happened to fall asleep at the same time, your dreams mixed together, creating a horrifying mashup of memories. Neither of you wanted a repeat showing, so you'd mutually agreed to sleep in shifts from then on.

Additionally, after a week and a half of failures, you finally managed to take control of the body. The first time had been while Sans was sleeping, but, the more you practiced it, the easier it became. You were only able to do it whenever Sans gave you permission, but as time went by, you felt that you were only getting stronger while he stayed stagnant. Privately, you thought that you would eventually be able to overpower him, if you ever found it necessary.

Occasionally, you and Sans used the computer. There was not much to do on it; it wasn't like you had internet connection in the barn, and you had to use the device sparingly since, although you had the charger, you had no outlet to plug it into. But, on a few memorable occasions, you and Sans took a shortcut in the middle of the night to the back of a nearby hardware store's storage room, where there was a weak wifi signal.

The first night you took such a trip, you did a Google search on your own name. Sans let you have control as you researched yourself, confining himself to the back of your collective mind as he looked on curiously.

When you typed in your name in the search engine, the first link that came up was a news article from your hometown. "Recent College Graduate Disappears During Camping Trip." You clicked on the link and read through it, feeling a morbid curiosity. Reading that article had been comparable to attending your own funeral. The author talked about you as though you were already dead. You didn't blame them, since everyone else who'd disappeared on Mt. Ebott never came back. Interestingly, although the article listed the names of the other children who had disappeared, there was no mention of Frisk.

That got Sans' attention, more so than your self-indulgent Google searching. At his insistence, you reluctantly relinquished control to him. He cleaned out the search bar and entered, simply, "Undertale."

The results were not what you had expected. There was only one page of links, and they were all nonsense that was not related to the game at all. Most of them were in languages you didn't recognize, and one was just some article about birds.

"Either this search-thing is really bad at its job, or this game isn't as popular as you said it is." Sans said accusingly. He tapped a talon on the concrete floor he was sitting on while you stared at the screen, dumbfounded.

 _It is popular… or at least, it was. Let me have the body for a minute, I wanna check something._ You pressed forward, trying to take the reins, but Sans held you back.

"Just tell me what to do." He demanded, and you sighed.

 _Control freak._ Sans smirked. _Fine. Go back to the desktop and click on that dark blue icon in the bottom right._ He did so, and you were greeted with Steam's familiar interface. _Now, on the left, click on 'Undertale.'_ The screen was eerily blank; there was only the title of the game, the 'play' button, and the information on how many hours you'd played. Interested, you directed Sans to search for the game in the store, but found that there were no results.

 _Weird… it's like the game doesn't even exist anymore._ You gave Sans a string of different things to search for, but there was no record of any videos, forums, or blogs that had been dedicated to the game. Even the game's creator was mysteriously absent from all forms of social media. Googling his name was similarly futile, as all that came up were links to facebook pages that belonged to people who happened to have the same name as the guy you were looking for. You gave up after that, forced to admit that the game no longer existed anywhere but on your computer.

 _How in the hell did that happen?_ You asked, not really expecting an answer.

"Maybe the reset changed something in this reality, too?" Sans suggested, shifting his wings in a nervous gesture.

 _Yeah, maybe._ But that didn't sit right with you. Why would that particular reset have changed things in the 'real' world, when none of the eleven previous ones had done anything of the sort?

The question had bothered you for days, but, ultimately, you had bigger problems to take care of.


	3. Skin to Bone

NOW...

Following your proclamation, a chilling silence suffocated everyone in the crowded kitchen. Alphys looked uneasy, Papyrus looked confused, and Undyne looked like she was about to argue with you. Asgore seemed unsure of what to say, but Toriel stepped up to take control of the situation. She clasped her hands in front of her, her voice kindly and very teacher-like.

"My dear, this is a very… ah... unprecedented turn of events. There are very few accounts of monsters absorbing human souls in recorded history, and never have I heard of anyone successfully separating two souls in such a situation. I do not mean to discourage you but…"

As she spoke, something within you began to stir. You felt the familiar presence of Sans, finally starting to return to reality.

 _Take her to the body._ He urged you, and you complied. This whole harebrained idea relied mainly on Toriel, at least for the first phase. You reached out to grasp the queen's elbow; perhaps a little too quickly, since she flinched back before composing herself.

"Come with me. Please? Need t' show you somethin'" Toriel was noticeably apprehensive, and you didn't blame her. It was a bit of a suspicious request, coming from a stranger.

"Alright." She agreed eventually, with a nervous smile. The crowd parted for the two of you, except for Asgore, who still stood in the doorway.

"Tori, why don't I go with you?" He suggested. Toriel's expression soured.

"I'll be fine." She said, coldly, causing Asgore to shuffle out of the way with haste. You were, for the moment, glad for the discord between them; after months of total solitude, you were getting more than a little overwhelmed with all of the monsters surrounding you. The fewer people you had to take back with you to the barn, the better.

You felt the others' nervous eyes on you as you led Toriel out of the house by the arm. Once you stepped on the sad, dirt road that connected all twelve houses, you stopped suddenly. The barn was on the opposite side of the mountain, so you couldn't very well walk there, and you still hadn't mastered the use of shortcuts.

"You do not need to hold me, child. I will not run away." Toriel's voice grabbed your attention, and your head swung around to look down at her. You'd forgotten that you still had a tight grip on her elbow. Though she was smiling, it looked strained, like she was in pain. You let go of her immediately.

"S-sorry." You mumbled, hunching in on yourself further. If this visit had taught you anything, it was that you weren't suited to be around other people anymore. You barely fit in the house, you left feathers and drops of blood everywhere you went, and, to top it all off, you didn't know your own strength. Sure, Toriel could hold her own, but what if that had been Frisk you'd grabbed? You recalled the image of their small body being engulfed by the light of Sans' blasters, and cringed. Did they remember…?

"My dear, weren't we going somewhere?" Toriel reminded you patiently. You jolted out of your own thoughts.

"Yeah." You began walking again, but slower, heading back to the shortcut you'd come out of earlier. _Sans? I'm gonna need some help with this._ No response. You gave him a little mental shove. _Really, now. If you're not up for taking control of the body yet, I understand. Maybe if you just help me to see the shortcuts, I'll be able to figure the rest out._ You didn't want to push him; you knew this revelation was hard on him. You'd never successfully used a shortcut before, especially not with a passenger, but you'd give it your best shot if that's what you had to do.

 _No, it's fine. I'll do it._ Sans was quiet, like his mental voice was muffled behind a door. If you hadn't been paying close attention, you probably wouldn't have heard him. By metaphorically pressing yourself into the back of your own mind, you tried to make the transition as easy as possible. Still, he shuddered as his awareness flooded your shared body, the only outward sign that anything had changed. He didn't even break stride as he lead Toriel a short ways up the mountain. The shortcuts slowly came into view; little wrinkles in space that quivered as you passed. Only one of them interested you at the moment.

"Stay close behind me." Sans warned before willing one of the shortcuts to open, revealing a spherical impression of the forest near the barn. As you and Toriel approached the sphere (invisible to your guest), it grew larger, until it turned concave and fully engulfed the three of you. Two sets of feet now crunched on softer ground, since this section of the forest was more dense with undergrowth than the one near the monster camp. You didn't look over your shoulder but, if you had, you would've seen the sphere again, but as a reflection of the spot on the mountain you had just disappeared from. Instead, you heard rather than saw the shortcut zip closed, and took a little prideful pleasure in Toriel's audible gasp at finding herself in a new location.

Abruptly, Sans let go of the body. He scampered on back to the passenger seat, while you scrambled to take back the reins. The body stumbled and nearly fell over in all the confusion. Silently, you blamed Sans.

Someone touched your elbow, and you flinched back. But it was only Toriel, wearing a concerned expression.

"Oh, dear, I apologize… are you alright?" You shook yourself and straightened the sheet that was hanging off of your hips.

"Yeah, m'fine." You flexed your wings, then turned back around and started walking again. "S'not far now." You led Toriel the rest of the way in silence, with only the sounds of chirping birds to accompany you. The queen said nothing as the three of you came up on the dilapidated barn. During the walk, Sans slowly began to stir again. He said nothing, but you could tell he was at least watching and paying attention. Before today, you would've thought you'd have liked to have full control of the body with no interference from Sans. But, if you were being honest, you were just relieved to be able to feel his presence again and know that he was looking out for the both of you.

As you pulled open the barn door, Toriel shrank back, covering her snout with a paw. Huh. You supposed it probably didn't smell too great, what with the partially-decomposed body in the trough and the blood from your dripping muscles congealing in puddles on the floor. You never noticed the smell, simply because you were around it all the time.

"Uh... M'not a… serial killer, or anythin'. It's jus' my own blood." You tried to explain, but it had sounded more reassuring in your head than it did out loud. Still, Toriel seemed to steel herself, and slowly dropped her hand back to her side.

"My child, is this where you have been living?" You fidgeted under her intense, motherly stare, clasping your taloned fingers in your regular ones.

"Um… yes?" She pursed her lips and gave you a pitying look. You didn't like it. "A-anyway, I wanted t' show you… you've got to heal it..." With long strides, you hurried over to the trough. Toriel followed behind you at a distance, eyeing the rusty, metal ceiling and the spots of blood with a critical eye. You looked down at the trough and hesitated, a single bead of sweat forming on your brow.

 _Well? Do it, you gotta show her._

"I-I don't…. want to." Your mouth twitched, your shoulder muscles spasming as you fought with yourself. You'd been all for this plan a moment ago, but something deep within your bones very much did _not_ want to touch the body. You hadn't seen it in months… what if it was all rotten, despite your best efforts to preserve it? You didn't want to see yourself like that.

 _It's not you, though. It's just a shell._ Sans said logically, but there was no reasoning with your instincts. He kept pushing you to just get it over with, even tried to take over the body, but you just whined and pressed your hands to the side of your head.

"Noooo… I don't wanna… I don't…"

"Excuse me?" Toriel's soft but demanding voice broke the cycle in your mind, pulling you out of whatever logic loop you were stuck in. Your dead eyes snapped to her, one of your vertebrae cracking as you turned your head around sharply. "I take it there is a human vessel in there?" That was a delicate way of putting it, but you nodded. Toriel took a step to the side, forcing you to physically turn away from the trough in order to keep looking at her. "You see… er, what should I call you?" She asked, kindly. Thrown off guard, your thought process ground to a halt. She had not asked for the name of whoever was in control, she'd asked for your name, period. You didn't have an answer to that.

"S-s-sa… no, that's not my name!" Sans struggled to speak, but you cut him off. You clutched your own skull even tighter than before. For some reason, he really insisted on using his name.

 _If you want us to be called "Sans" so badly, then go ahead! Say it!_ You challenged him, and he really tried. You ground your teeth together as he pressed forward, fighting to take control of the body so he could answer Toriel's question himself. But, in the end, you were stronger. He gave up eventually, slumping back and fuming with anger. You took grim satisfaction from your win, and took your time coming up with a good, collective name for the both of you. Eventually, you decided to go with the first thing both of you had seen through the same eyes,

"Call us Orion." You spoke, your voice a little shaky from mental exertion. _This is more fair,_ You directed your thoughts to Sans, _It's not either of our names, but it could be like a temporary nickname, just while we're in this form._ Sans was not placated, and childishly refused to speak to you. Well, if he wanted to be grumpy about it, then so be it.

"Orion," Toriel started up again with a thin smile, "I do, indeed, have healing powers. I can heal physical wounds and even wounds of the soul. However, you see… your human body is beyond my ability to heal." Frustration, anger. You couldn't tell if it was yours or Sans'.

"What d'you mean?" You growled, and Toriel clasped her hands in front of her. To her credit, she still managed to meet your eyes, even though you probably looked frightening.

"To put it simply, I cannot raise the dead. I am sorry, but I can be of no help to you." You clenched your hands into fists and quickly turned around, facing the trough again. It wasn't Toriel's fault, so you didn't want her to see your rage. But you were so, very upset. You'd held on to hope for _months_ , lived in isolation all that time, worked so hard to preserve the body so that Toriel could heal it, and now, with the exchange of just a few words, all of that hope was dashed.

"Sans… this is your fault," You said, unaware that you were speaking out loud, "You made me think… you told me this would work!" Sans, still annoyed by you making an executive decision on the name thing, was irate.

 _Don't blame me! Besides, she doesn't know. She hasn't even tried it yet. Ask her… ask her if she's ever tried it. I bet she hasn't!_ He urged you frantically, but you ignored him. You were, frankly, pissed, and the last thing you wanted to do was listen to his advice. Instead, you asked in a dark tone,

"Then who can?"

"S-sorry?" You couldn't see her, but you thought Toriel finally sounded scared. You must've looked absolutely insane. With a great effort, you relaxed your hands and shoulders, a couple drops of blood dripping from your muscles as the tension released from them.

"You said _you_ can't raise the dead. So, who can?" There was a beat of silence.

"Listen, Orion, I do not wish to lead you down this path. You do not know what you are asking." You spun around, fixing her with an intense look. The bones of your wings clacked together and the wilting feathers rustled.

"Then tell me!" Toriel looked uncharacteristically nervous. Her gaze flicked around as if searching for a way out, but she found none. She was in an unknown location, outside of the plot of land that the humans had allotted for the monsters. You were her only way back; you could've held her captive here until she answered you, if you'd been so inclined. Of course, you wouldn't have done such a thing, but she didn't know that.

"There is an… extremely old branch of magic that had once allowed monsters to reanimate the dead. All I know is that it was very complex. It was an innate ability, passed down through generations. One had to have been born with it in order to put it to practice. It was rare to begin with, but it died immediately when monsters were sealed underground. After all, without any humans or animals, there were no bodies to reanimate." Toriel pursed her lips as she explained, as though disgusted by this. "It was not natural, what they did. It was part of why humans were so afraid of us. But, regardless, the practice is long gone now. And, even if you could find a necromancer, they would not be able to solve your problem. A reanimated corpse is still a corpse. Even if you could somehow get your soul into it, you would be trapped in a dead body, at the whim of whomever casted the spell to raise you. That is not a fate I would wish upon anyone."

Toriel finished her explanation, and you took a moment to mull over the wealth of new information. Even Sans had put aside his anger towards you and listened to the queen carefully.

 _I've never heard of that… necromancy._ He seemed surprised at his own lack of knowledge, but you weren't. After all, Sans was not much older than you, and it sounded like this magic had disappeared thousands of years ago. _You'd think there'd be some kind of record of it, though._ He reasoned, and you nodded.

 _Maybe there is, and you just never came across it. We should look into this._ The more you and Sans agreed, the calmer your body became. You hadn't noticed how tense you'd been until you suddenly weren't anymore. You'd even been standing up straight, something you rarely ever did. Slowly, you hunched back over, your wings and shoulders slumping.

"You cannot seriously be considering this… are you?" Toriel asked, incredulous. Your attention snapped back to her. You chose your words carefully.

"I trust you when you say s'a bad idea, but maybe it could be part of th' solution?" You felt a spark of hope again. It wasn't much, but it was at least enough to keep you moving forward. "I'm not gonna give up, so anythin's worth lookin' into, at least." Your guest blinked and regarded you with scrutiny. She hummed appreciatively.

"I suppose, if you would like more information, I would suggest asking others who were alive during that time. I do not know much about it, as I tried to stay away from such things. But perhaps Asgore or some other, older monsters might know more than I." She seemed reluctant to point you in this direction, but you were glad she had. You made a mental note to talk to Asgore, and anyone else you could think of. There was someone out there who had the answers you needed, you just knew it.

To Toriel, you nodded and gave a crooked smile, "Thanks. 'Preciate it." She smiled back at you warmly.

"Be careful, won't you? You are swimming in murky waters, dealing with unprecedented situations… I would not want to see you get hurt."

"Can't get much more hurt, t' be honest." Your grin widened as you reused your old joke, but Toriel didn't seem to find it funny.

"This reminds me… my child, you mustn't continue living in such a hazardous environment! We have plenty of free houses on our plot of land; I insist that you move into one of them." She fixed you with a stern look. Feeling insecure, you hunched in on yourself further. You didn't want to disappoint her, but-

"Sorry, can't. I'd rather stay close to…" You gestured to the trough. It was only a half-lie; you did want to keep an eye on the body to make sure it never thawed in the late-summer heat, but mostly, you just didn't think you would fit in with the rest of the monsters. You didn't want to burden them, and you also didn't particularly want to alert the humans to your existence. Plus, in the back of your mind, you felt Sans' intense discomfort at the idea of living so close to the friends who had forgotten him. It was easier here, with Toriel, who neither of you had ever really known that well. But facing Alphys or Papyrus again was… well, you wanted to do it on your own terms, and Sans agreed.

"Very well. At least allow me to help you clean it up a bit. If you must live here, you should do your best to keep it hospitable." At that moment, Toriel had sounded very much like a mom, trying to convince you to clean your room. It cheered you up, if only a little.

"Sure. Jus' don't throw anythin' away. Some of it's got sen'imental value." You stumbled over the long word and felt your face heat up. It was embarrassing that you had such trouble speaking, but Toriel ignored it.

"I won't, Orion."

With that, the two of you began to work on cleaning the place up a little. You raked the dirt on the ground, covering the bloodstained spots with fresh soil. Toriel swept up the plethora of feathers that littered the floor. There was a small stream of sorts leading from the trough to one of the walls, created by the melted ice which dripped out the hole in the bottom of the container. You spread straw over the wet spots to soak it up, while Toriel found a bucket to put under the trough instead of just letting the water go where it pleased. Toriel suggested you wrap your exposed muscles up with bandages to keep blood from getting everywhere again, but you hesitated. The muscles were quite sensitive and you didn't like anything touching them. Even the sheet you had on chafed uncomfortably against the muscles on your legs. Toriel promised to find you something more comfortable to wear when you saw her next.

"You… wanna see me again?" You said, surprised but hopeful. You'd made a rather strong first impression, after all, so you hadn't expected her to want to be buddies or anything.

"Of course! You seem to have some trouble taking care of yourself, so I will help you for as long as you need." She seemed to realize the backhanded insult seconds after it left her mouth, and she blushed. "Oh, I did not mean-"

"I would hug you right now, if I wasn't 'fraid of gettin' blood all over you." You said with a reassuring smile. Much to your bewilderment, Toriel stepped forward and wrapped you in a careful hug. While you were frozen with shock, Sans took control and patted Toriel on the back before gently pushing her away.

"I should take you back to the camp. Asgore is probably worried." Sans spoke while you settled back, quietly glad that your other half seemed to be fully functioning again after that fiasco with his brother. Toriel scoffed at his comment, but grinned good-naturedly.

"Oh, he can worry all he likes! But it is getting late, perhaps I should return." The queen followed behind Sans as he led her back through the shortcut. The three of you walked together until the row of houses came into view. Toriel made you promise to come back to visit tomorrow before she said goodbye, walking quickly to get back to the lone house with its lights on.

You, on the other hand, sat back in the metaphorical passenger seat, watching silently as Sans walked you both back to the barn again. You felt strangely lonely now that Toriel was gone. Strange, because you never really were alone. That was the problem. Sans, for his part, didn't say a word to you, either. Silently, you both agreed that Sans would take the first shift sleeping, and that was that.


	4. Remember Me

The next day, you made good on your promise to go back to the monster encampment for a visit. You mentally prepared yourself by wrapping the sheet around your body again. Even though it bothered your sensitive muscles, you wore it like a toga this time, tying it around one shoulder to make a strap. It was less likely to fall down that way and helped you feel at least slightly less naked. Before you left, you snatched up the Rubik's cube at the last minute. It might've looked strange for you to be carrying it around, but it was a soothing presence in your hand and gave you something to squeeze if you got nervous. You would've preferred to have taken your cane, which Sans had helpfully taken across the barrier with your body, but that would've been too cumbersome.

After a brief walk through the forest, the two of you reached the shortcut you needed to take. Sans rose up to take control, but you stopped him.

"Wait. Teach me how." After yesterday's fiasco, you were especially motivated to learn how to use the shortcuts yourself. If Sans hadn't been able to muster the strength to open the wormhole, you would've been stranded on the tiny plot of land allotted to the monsters. You needed to learn how to use his unique brand of magic yourself, in case a situation like that came up again. Better to practice it now, in a controlled environment, rather than being forced to do it for the first time in an emergency.

 _I'll try._ Sans replied, doubtful that he'd be able to teach you. You figured, with enough practice, you could use the same magic as him, since you shared a body and, in a sense, a soul. But, though he didn't voice it, you felt Sans' skepticism. You didn't let that bring you down, and tried to let your own self-efficacy outshine his self-doubt.

 _I don't think I can explain it in words, but I can try to show you._ You nodded and turned to face head-on the spot that you knew the shortcut would eventually be. You felt his consciousness bare down on you, like he was on the edge of taking control of the body but wasn't quite there yet. Sans hovered in this state as he gathered magic from your very bones, allowing you to feel what it was like to hold this energy close to your soul. While this was happening, you saw the shortcuts materializing in front of you as wavering lines in the air, including the one of interest. Sans focused on that one in particular, causing it to form into a small orb.

Slowly and without warning you, Sans started relinquishing control. As he stepped away, you struggled to hold on to the magic he'd gathered for you. It wasn't something physical you could've grasped, so it was hard to conceptualize. The shortcuts wavered and threatened to disappear until Sans intervened again.

 _Try visualizing it like it's something real… like holding water in your hands._ He advised you before he started backing away again. You took his suggestion to heart and tried to picture the magic swirling around you soul as if it were a physical thing. To your delight, it worked; the shortcut remained open. Curious, you willed it to open further. Your right eye flashed with a strange warmth, and you smiled broadly when the orb grew a bit in size.

"Look! I'm doin' it!" But, even as you spoke, the shortcut snapped closed again. It remained visible, like the surrounding shortcuts, as a thin line in the air, but it wasn't something you could have passed through. You struggled to bring it back, and were a little disappointed when you couldn't.

 _Don't worry about it; that's more than I thought you'd be able to do._ He helped you bring the wormhole back to its full size and let you walk through it, which would have been disorienting had you not watched Sans go through these rips in space many times. As you walked the final stretch to the monsters' houses, Sans commented,

 _Maybe I shouldn't be teaching you this… if you keep picking up magic at this pace, soon you won't need me for anything anymore._ It had been meant as a joke, but you felt underlying worry in his tone.

"Nah, I'll always need you… who else'll kill th' spiders in th' barn?" You nudged him mentally, your version of jabbing him with an elbow. He scoffed, but you felt his soul brighten up a little, anyway.

 _Har har. Don't tell that to Muffet._ Both of you quieted down as you approached the front door of the fourth house from the left. You knocked on the wood and backed away, fiddling with the Rubik's cube anxiously. If you'd had a heart, it would have leapt out of your chest at the sight of the person who greeted you at the door.

"Oh! Hello again!" Papyrus peered up at you, and, damn, was it weird to be taller than him. Sans surged forward, vying for control, but you shut him down. You felt deeply that letting him talk to Papyrus at that moment was a bad idea. Sans beat against your defenses furiously, while you held your breath and tried to ignore him. "You are back! Toriel did say you would return, and now here you are. Returning. To my house." Papyrus rambled, obviously nervous.

"Uh, yeah. Hi." You cleared your throat. Thankfully, Sans gave up trying to overpower you, and instead just slumped back in your mind, keening. As much as you thought you were right to keep him from interacting with Papyrus, you felt bad for him. The pitiful whine he made was almost as distracting as his mental attacks. "Sorry about yesterday. That was prob'ly weird for you." Your wings twitched, the bones tapping together restlessly. You felt a massive headache coming on.

"Do not apologize! The Great Papyrus is not fazed by anything! I assure you, it takes more than that to rattle these bones! Nyeh heh heh!" It was immensely relieving to hear him acting like himself, the way both you and Sans remembered him. Your shoulders slumped, and your own rattling bones quieted. Sans even stopped that awful noise he'd been making.

"M'glad." There was a beat of slightly-awkward silence, which you hurried to break, "Not that I, uh, don' wanna talk t' you, but I was kinda lookin' for Toriel. She around?" Papyrus perked up, glad to have an answer for you.

"Yes! Well, not here. We don't all live in the same house, the Queen and the human live over there!" He leaned out of the doorway to point enthusiastically to the house next to his. You supposed that made sense; there was no way six people would have been able to live in one of these tiny houses. But that raised the question,

"You don' live on your own, do you?" You frowned with the unfrozen half of your face, your brows furrowing in concern. Sans deeply rebelled against the idea of Papyrus living all alone, even if he did have helpful neighbors right next door. Thankfully, Papyrus shook his head and cackled.

"No! Alphys, Undyne, and I are all having an extended sleepover! Isn't that great?!" He looked genuinely elated about this setup, and you couldn't help but to smile back. It was even better when you realized that Undyne and Alphys were dating, so Papyrus was inevitably the third wheel, probably without even realizing it. You wondered how _that_ was working out for them. Sans didn't see as much humor in the situation, and was a complicated mix of jealous that he wasn't the one taking care of his brother, and happy that at least someone was.

"Oh. Well, good." You shifted your weight, then took a step back. "Should prob'ly go see Toriel now. Was nice, talkin' t' you." You turned around, about to head for the house next door.

"Wait!" Before you could leave, Papyrus called out to you. You turned back to face him, giving him your undivided attention. "Um… if you're my… you said- the other day, you asked me if there was anything missing, um, in my life? Anything that felt… wrong?" You listened patiently as he stumbled around his words, which you knew he only did when he was particularly self-conscious. He used to do it all the time when he was just a little twerp… at the time, Sans had worried that he'd have a stutter his whole life. But, as it turned out, his mouth just moved faster than his mind, sometimes, and he was able to catch up to himself eventually. Sans yearned to reach out to his little brother, but you held him back in order to let Papyrus finish talking. "W-well, in my house in Snowdin, there's this… basement? And there's a lot of weird things down there… is that your stuff?"

Suddenly, Sans snapped into control. It happened so quick that you were shocked into inaction. It had been so long since Sans had been able to override you that you hadn't been expecting it in the least. But, instead of comforting Papyrus as he had wanted to do only seconds earlier, Sans stumbled backwards. Without even looking, he threw caution to the wind and went through the nearest shortcut, with Papyrus' surprised expression being the last thing either of you saw.

It had only been for a moment, but, by the time you got over the shock of being usurped, you were standing in a completely different place. The air was thin and covered in a layer of fog. There were no trees; only small, thorny shrubs could survive with so little oxygen. You had to have been on the very top of the mountain, or at least close to it. You wrested back control, anger simmering in your soul.

"What the fuck were you thinkin'?!" You yelled, disrupting the stillness of the mountain air. "You can't jus' go through random shortcuts! What if we'd ended up in the middle of a damn city?!" You stomped your foot, sending several pebbles scattering in different directions. Sans felt defensive, his own soul flaring around yours.

 _Well, we didn't._ He pointed out unhelpfully. _If you would've just let me take control when I wanted to-_

"If you would stop freakin' the fuck out every time we see Paps, maybe I would let you!" He had no coherent response to that, so both of you just fumed silently at each other. You weren't completely aware that you were pacing and muttering to yourself, but by the time you settled down enough to notice, you saw that there was an angry rut in the ground where you'd been walking. You paused and took a deep breath.

"Okay, so why'd you do that incredibly stupid thing, now?"

 _We've gotta go to the basement. I need to see if everything's still there. I need to._ You were about to argue; after all, why didn't he just tell you instead of taking a risky shortcut? And why couldn't this wait until after you met up with Toriel, like you'd promised? But hearing the desperation in his tone stopped you short.

"Okay, okay… jus' do it, then." You settled back, letting Sans take control, which he eagerly did. The speed at which he hopped through shortcuts was nauseating to you, but eventually, the both of you ended up at the top of the stairs leading down to the basement. Sans took the stairs three at a time, moving so quickly that he knocked his head on the ceiling. But, as soon as he made it to the main room, he stopped abruptly and stared.

The place was… not exactly how either of you remembered it. There were small differences in the basement each time a reset happened, but this was definitely the most it had ever changed between timelines. You suspected a lot of that had to do with Papyrus, since it was obvious that someone had been down here trying to make sense of all of it. Instead of being folded neatly in their drawers, blueprints were openly laid out on the countertop. The unfinished machine was exposed, having been divested of the sheet that usually covered it. On top of it all, there was a thick layer of dust, like whoever had gone through it had given up quite a while ago. In short, it all looked much messier than usual, which was odd. Since when did Papyrus ever leave a place messy?

You were more interested in the time machine, but Sans hobbled over to the counter first. He set down the Rubik's cube before opening one of the drawers, taking out out a stack of pictures and thumbing through them to make sure they were all still there. He stopped at the last one, the photo of everyone together on the surface, and swiped his thumb over it reverently. In the image, Sans and Papyrus had their arms around each other. Here, there was physical proof that they were brothers. That Sans had existed, once upon a time. He set that picture next to the Rubik's cube and carefully placed the others back in the drawer where they belonged.

 _What do all those pictures mean?_ You asked, curious, as Sans moved on to the blueprints. Aside from being open flat on the table, they looked otherwise undisturbed.

"Dunno. Most of them don't make much sense." You sensed that he was being evasive, and silently pushed for him to tell you more. He opened the drawer with the badge in it a little rougher than was strictly necessary, and sighed, bowing his head. "I think all of the stuff in this basement belonged to someone else. I don't remember making these blueprints, and I don't write like that, anyway. The same monster appears in a lot of those pictures, so I think this was all his." He reopened the drawer with the pictures, pulling out one near the back of the pile that showed Sans, along with a few other monsters you didn't recognize, posing for a picture with an eerily familiar, skeletal figure. Sans pointed to that monster, who stood out as the tallest and most serious-looking of the group. "It's that guy. I obviously knew him in some timeline, but I don't remember him. I guess that's probably why I know how to read his weird handwriting, even though I don't remember ever learning it." He flipped through a few of the other pictures, showing you more images of the same monster.

 _Gaster._ You thought, your interest thoroughly piqued. _His name's W.D. Gaster._ He didn't look exactly how you remembered his sprite looking; there was no distinctive crack running down his face, and he didn't have that melted quality that he seemed to have in the game. But the holes in his hands (interestingly, he didn't have them in every picture, only the last few) were what really gave it away.

"What? Do you know him? Who is he?" Sans asked eagerly.

 _Well, I don't know much. He was kind of in the game, but you had to mess with the files in order to see him. I never actually encountered him, but I heard of people who did…_ You thought about showing Sans some videos of people who'd messed with the game files more than you had, but then realized that all of that evidence had been erased with the last reset. You had nothing to go on aside from your own memories of second-hand accounts. _Sorry, I really don't have much information about him aside from a name. People kind of figured this basement had something to do with him, though._ You felt Sans' disappointment at your lack of new information, but that quickly turned into suspicion as he thought back to your own time in the Underground.

"Hey, wait… is that why you broke into the basement before? Were you trying to find out more about Gaster?" He felt betrayed, which you thought was ridiculous considering how much had happened between then and now. Did it really matter, at this point?

 _First of all, I didn't break in; you practically gave me the key. Second of all, I wasn't looking for anything in particular, and I didn't find anything earth-shattering before you caught me. I was in the middle of translating something on the blueprints, but I didn't get very far._ Sans flipped through the blueprints until he found the one he was looking for.

"It was this one, right? I remember, when I was cleaning up after you, this was the one on top."

 _Uh, yeah, probably. Why does it matt-_

"Did you read this?" He used a talon to point to a note on the margin of the paper, scribbled in sloppily like an afterthought. It seemed like it didn't belong with the rest of the pristine, analytical notes.

 _I think that was what I was translating when you interrupted me, actually. Where're you going with this?_ Sans didn't answer you, but pulled the blueprints closer, clearing his throat before he started reading,

"ENTRY NUMBER TWO

THE TIME MACHINE IS FINISHED  
IF I GO BACK  
BEFORE THE FORMATION OF THE BARRIER  
I COULD USE MY ADVANCED KNOWLEDGE  
TO BUILD THE BLASTERS SOONER  
THEN WE CAN WIN THE WAR  
AND NO ONE NEED EVER KNOW OF THIS TIMELINE

I HOPE THIS WORKS"

By the time he finished, you were buzzing with excitement. _This_ was the kind of thing you'd been hoping to find in the basement the last time you'd snuck down here. If only you'd had time to translate more than "entry number" the first time.

"He's obviously talking about _my_ blasters, right? And that time machine." You couldn't remember the last time Sans had sounded so excited. You realized, then, that he must've been keeping this information to himself for years. No wonder he was so happy to find someone who he could converse with about it.

 _Yeah, I'd assume so. But he says here that the time machine was finished… it's clearly not._ Sans turned to glance at the sad-looking, cobbled-together machine before frantically rummaging through the pictures that he still held clutched in his left hand.

"Wait, there's more." You watched as he pulled out a seemingly innocuous photo of the Ruins. It took you a moment to recognize the location, as the city seemed to be in its early stages of creation; a stark contrast to the rubble you knew it to be now. Sans flipped over the picture, where there was another note written in wingdings.

"ENTRY NUMBER FOUR

WHEN THE TIME MACHINE FAILED  
I WAS TRAPPED IN THE PAST  
I HAD CREATED A MACHINE TO MOVE BACKWARDS IN TIME  
BUT IT COULD NOT BRING ME FORWARD  
I LOST  
YEARS  
AND YEARS  
OF RESEARCH

I WILL HAVE TO START OVER"

You took a moment to process this, staring at the symbols even though you couldn't personally understand them. Sans waited impatiently for you to soak it all in.

 _Wait, wait… Gaster was in the first war?_ You thought, as you just realized the implication of the first note. He'd talked about using the blasters in the war, so… how old was this guy? Sans rolled his eyes.

"Really? _That_ was the most shocking thing you got from this?" He set down the stack of photos and wandered over to the unfinished time machine, breathing a huff of air to blow the dust off of it. "The important thing is that he made this time machine 'cause he thought he could go back and prevent the creation of the barrier. But it clonked out on him for some reason… didn't bring him back far enough. So he started remaking it, but I guess he never finished." Sans swiped a hand over the cool, metal surface of the machine. "When Paps and I moved here, and I found this place… I didn't know this guy, or what made him abandon the project, but, seeing those pictures, I knew… something bad had happened to him, something that made me, and everyone else, forget his existence. So I had to carry on with his work, y'know? Maybe I could've done what he couldn't… go back to before any of this and stop it all before it could happen. And then, after the kid fell down here, and all of… _that_... started happening, I got even more motivated to finish it. More than that, it just _felt_ like something I was supposed to be doing." You listened closely, until it seemed like he was done talking.

 _Why didn't you tell anyone?_ You asked quietly, and Sans snorted.

"I did." He walked back over to the photos, and pulled out one of the last ones. It was of Sans, Gaster, and a younger-looking Alphys, all bent over examining something and frowning in concentration. "I told Alphys about all of this, and she helped me with the time machine… for a while." His expression darkened, "Then, Asgore asked her to be the Royal Scientist, and she refused to help me anymore. Like that sick shit she was doin' to those dead bodies was more important than the time machine…" You rarely ever heard Sans sound more repulsed, and it startled you. He certainly felt very strongly about this.

"Damn straight I do." He growled, making you squirm. You hated when he read your mind like that. "Everything I've ever cared about is in this room. 'Cept for Paps, of course." He amended quickly. "This was the most important work I've ever done. And now, because of the reset, it's like none of it ever happened…" He glanced over at the machine sadly. He was right; it didn't look like anyone had touched that thing in ages. Any progress Sans may have made on it had been erased. "Think I understand now why he… Gaster... never finished it. I always thought something happened to him to make him stop, but maybe he just couldn't find the will to remake it…" Sans looked back down at the blueprints, fingering the pages absentmindedly. After a moment of contemplation, you suddenly realized-

 _Oh my god. 'Entry number two' and 'entry number four'? Sans, in the Undertale game files, there's something written in the same language called 'entry number seventeen.' Why didn't I think of that sooner?_ You silently berated yourself, but Sans cut you off.

"What'd it say?" He asked urgently, and you strained to remember.

 _I… don't know._ You felt his frustration practically radiating from his soul. _Hey, it's been like, two and a half years! I can't remember everything. But we could go read it, if we break out the computer again._ Just suggesting it gave you a bad taste in your mouth. Both you and Sans had sworn never to tamper with that game again, and doing this would require changing the very code of the game…

"No. Absolutely not." Sans put his foot down, and you agreed with him. For the most part. It was risky, peeking into the code of the game, but… you could've been convinced to do it. Probably.

"Well, it's not happening. I don't care what you think." Sans stated bluntly.

 _Wow, I'm flattered._ You knew Sans hated sarcasm, which was exactly why you used it. Sure enough, you could've felt his annoyance even if you hadn't been sharing a body. Before your petty arguing could escalate into a full-blown fight, the door to the basement creaked open. Sans' head swung around, but he relaxed as he recognized the long stride of the person descending the stairs.

"Ah… aha! I know… you'd be… down here…" Papyrus huffed and puffed, as though he'd been working out. Had he run the whole way there? The thought of him hoofing it all the way from the monster camp on the surface to his old home in Snowdin amused you. But then, you realized - Sans was in control, and Papyrus was here. Paps had no way of knowing it, but he was about to interact with his brother firsthand. You hovered silently, ready to take control if Sans started to seem like he was about to do something stupid.

"Yeah, I'm here, Paps." Sans smiled crookedly, his bones warming with contentment.

"Wait a minute…! You seem different!" Papyrus narrowed his eyes, leaning against the wall as he recovered from his run. You were impressed that Papyrus could tell the difference when Toriel hadn't seemed to be able to. Sans was unsurprised, but proud nonetheless.

"Yeah, uh… the two… parts of us… can switch off being in control. You've been talking to one of us, for the most part, and now… I'm the other one." Sans struggled to explain in terms that Papyrus would understand, but he seemed to catch on quickly.

"Oh! So, which one are you? The human, or the monster?" Pap asked, in a voice that was quieter than usual.

"The monster. Sans." ' _Your brother_ ' went unspoken. Papyrus straightened up away from the wall, his breathing more even now.

"Oh! Oh. Well, hello, then! Heh!" He beamed, and Sans couldn't help but to smile back.

"Hi." For lack of anything better to do, Sans held out his hand. He immediately felt stupid, but he couldn't have very well taken it back. Both of you were shocked when, instead of shaking his hand, Papyrus lunged forward and gave Sans a brief but enthusiastic hug.

"I don't really understand what happened but, if we're brothers, then that's great! I've never had a brother before!" Touched, Sans patted Papyrus' shoulder before they separated. You were alarmed when you realized that Sans was about ready to cry, but he waved off your concern silently. He took a shaky breath and forced back tears.

"Yeah… hey, why're you wearing that?" Sans asked, deflecting the subject to something less emotional. You hadn't even noticed, but Papyrus _was_ wearing something strange. Instead of his ridiculous battle-body costume, he was in a full-on suit of armour. Now that you thought about it, it was the same thing he'd been wearing yesterday, too.

"Oh ho! I'm glad you asked!" Papyrus puffed out his chest proudly. "This is the very official, very prestigious uniform of the Royal Guard, of which I am a member!" He struck a familiar pose, but it felt a little lacking without the billowing cape that used to accompany it. Sure enough, you recognized that getup he was in as the same kind of armour that Undyne wore when she was on duty, except without the headpiece. It looked just as ridiculous on Papyrus as the battle body, but you supposed it was a step up from the costume held together by paper mache.

" _You're_ in the Guard?!" Sans hadn't meant to sound so shocked but… what the hell had happened to let Papyrus finally fulfil his near-impossible lifelong dream? Thankfully, Papyrus didn't look wounded by Sans' disbelief. He cackled happily.

"Of course! And Undyne's my boss… isn't that great?!" You felt Sans slipping, losing control. Quickly, you rose up to take it from him.

 _He's done so much better without me… was I really holding him back that much?_ You were helpless to stop Sans from drifting into his own despair. You wanted to comfort him, but Papyrus was still standing there, looking at you curiously.

"U-uh, yeah. But, hey, what about the puzzles? Who's manning those?" Desperately, you fished for a new topic, trying your best to keep up the appearance of sanity while slowly becoming overwhelmed by Sans' guilt. You disagreed with his assessment of the situation, but his feelings of hopelessness still ate away at you, infecting you like a virus. It wasn't fair.

"I am, of course! I must keep the puzzles in pristine condition in case any humans fall down! Hey, you're different again, aren't you?" Damn, Papyrus was good at that. He grinned at you, and you smiled back guiltily.

"Oh, um, yeah. Sorry, Sans is… he had t' go." You shrugged awkwardly, feeling rotten. In the silence that followed, Papyrus looked around the room, as though just noticing it for the first time. His eyes locked onto something behind you.

"Hey! What's that? I'm sure it wasn't here before!" He reached past you, moving uncharacteristically slowly as though afraid of frightening you. It was funny since, between the two of you, you were certainly the more scary-looking. You followed the movement of his hand as it snatched up the Rubik's cube from the counter. You'd almost forgotten about bringing that along, but just the sight of it in Papyrus' hands instantly soothed you. This was a familiar image.

"S'a puzzle. Look." You held out your hand, and Papyrus handed over the cube. He watched you eagerly as you scrambled it up, which was quite difficult to do with the giant talons on your right hand. Once you got it nice and mixed up, you gave it back to Paps. "You gotta get it so all the colors match up." Papyrus' face lit up, and you chuckled softly. Here, you finally had something you could share with Papyrus, some memory that you could bring back. It didn't have anything to do with Sans… it was just you and Papyrus, hanging out. Doing the Rubik's cube, like you always did.

As Papyrus examined the cube, giving it a few experimental twists, Sans became intensely jealous. It rose up in your chest like black bile, and you nearly choked on it.

 _He's MY brother,_ Sans hissed in your thoughts, _You barely even know him, what the fuck are you even doing here?_ He pushed against you, trying to take back control. You barely noticed that you were curling in on yourself and sweating, hugging yourself around the middle. _I'm the one who gave you that damn cube in the first place... I should be showing him this, not you!_

"Shut up! I'm his friend, too! Just let me talk t' him for two goddamn minutes-"

 _You don't even deserve to be his friend, if he knew about all the horrible things you did-_

"Orion?" The sound of your chosen name snapped both you and Sans out of your argument. Papyrus stood in front of you, frowning, which he rarely ever did. Toriel must've told him about the name, you'd forgotten about that…

"Please don't fight with each other." He leaned forward and reached out, his fingers making contact with your humerus lightly. You stared at the place where your bones were touching, your breathing ragged and heavy. "You shouldn't fight. I… I don't want you to. You're supposed to be friends! We can all be friends… all three of us… can't we?" He smiled tentatively and waited a moment for his request to sink in. Sans was the first one to break the silence.

 _I'm sorry._ You couldn't doubt his sincerity, since you felt it deep within your own bones.

"Me, too. This is rough for you, I should'a been more patient." For a moment, you forgot that Papyrus could hear you talk, but he didn't interrupt.

 _It's rough for you, too. I shouldn't have brought up that stuff you did in the game. I told you I forgave you for that, and I meant it._ Now that he brought it up again, yeah, that did sting. His last words to you as you laid dying had been to forgive you, and now, you wondered if that was really true. Had it just been a platitude?

"S'okay." You grunted, deciding to set that aside for a different day. "We good?"

 _Yeah, we're good._ You smiled.

"You can… take the reins, if you… if you want." Even though you hated giving up control, you offered it to him as a gesture of goodwill. He took it graciously, and you slid back to the corner of your mind.

"Thanks." Sans said aloud, and you grumbled wordlessly. Papyrus gave you both a broad grin and grasped Sans' arm tighter, pulling him up to his full height. Or, well, as tall as he could get without hitting his head on the ceiling.

"Nyeh heh heh! I knew you could do it!" With a sly glint in his eye, Papyrus held out the Rubik's cube. It was solved.

"Wow, Paps, that's gotta be a record." Sans took the puzzle from him, genuinely impressed. The armour-clad skeleton inflated with pride before tugging Sans forward, pulling him up the stairs.

"Come, brother! You have an appointment with the Queen, and you are already late! We must hurry!" Warmth spread through Sans' soul as he heard Paps call him "brother." Briefly, Sans considered taking Papyrus through a shortcut. Usually, he'd be all for taking the lazy route, but today, he just wanted to stroll through the Underground with Papyrus screaming at him to pick up the pace. You tried not to intrude on his quiet moment, but something nagged at you enough that you had to bring it up.

 _Hey Sans…?_

 _Yeah, kid?_

 _About Gaster's journal entries… if you found numbers two and four, and number seventeen is in the files of the game… do you think there's more of them, hidden somewhere?_ There was a beat of contemplative silence.

 _We'll just have to keep our eyes peeled, won't we?_


	5. Stitches

As Sans strolled through the Underground with Papyrus, you noticed how different the atmosphere was. Back when you'd lived there, you hadn't had much opportunity to talk to or even see most monsters. But there'd been just a general sense of unease in the air. The few glimpses you'd caught of Snowdin town had been bleak; people seemed to stay in their houses and not mingle about like they did in the game. It was hard to get an accurate read on the Underground through the rose-colored glasses of the game, but you thought people had seemed pretty cheerful and upbeat when Frisk had made their journey down here. Now, from what you saw of the general populace just passing through New Home, they all seemed on edge. Not as world-weary as they'd been in your timeline, but just… nervous. People were huddled in groups, whispering among themselves. Even Sans, as focused on his brother as he was, noticed how odd it all felt.

"Hey, Paps. Are things goin' alright down here?" Papyrus, who'd been a few steps ahead of Sans, slowed down and looked over his shoulder at you.

"Yes of course! Everyone's so excited to get to the surface. There's just not enough room quite yet… but I'm sure we'll all get there eventually!" Leave it to Papyrus to put an optimistic spin on the situation. You hadn't really thought about it, but you supposed people down here were frustrated. The barrier was shattered, the surface was just within their reach… but yet, they still had to stay down here until the humans decided they were allowed up. You thought you had some idea how that felt.

But, you had your own problems to worry about. You couldn't possibly help these people, as much as you wanted to.

Papyrus and Sans passed through New Home with you as a passenger, quickly reaching Asgore's house. The side rooms of the house were roped off, with a sign politely directing passers by to the basement, where the link between the Underground and the surface was located. Sans followed Papyrus at an easy, loping gait, his long legs allowing him to keep up with his brother even though Papyrus moved much quicker. A jolt of fear shocked you as you reached the room where the barrier had been, and it took you a moment to remember why you were afraid. This was where you'd died.

Sans' eyes automatically flicked to the floor, looking for a bloodstain. Obviously, there was none, since your death had happened in an alternate universe. In your head, you laughed nervously; when had converging timelines and parallel universes become a normal part of your daily vocabulary? Sans largely ignored your hysteria, instead focusing on the bright sunlight that shone through the massive hole in the cave wall. He ran his fingers over the lip of the crude doorway, noting that the place where the barrier had stood left no physical trace. The Underground had merged rather smoothly with the surface world, with no evidence suggesting that they had once existed in two separate realities.

Papyrus was not interested in waiting around, and made an impatient noise in the back of his throat before bounding forward.

"Hurry! And watch your step! Nyeh heh!" Indeed, there was a huge cliff face right outside the Underground's exit, giving a spectacular view of the surrounding area. You could even see Ebott City in the distance, with a large body of water just to the left of it. In the more immediate foreground was the plot of land that had been given to the monsters. The tops of the hastily-made guard towers could be seen at each of the four corners of the plot, where you knew armed guards were patrolling, on the lookout for any monsters trying to escape. It was a grim sight to be met with immediately after leaving the Underground, and you could understand why more monsters didn't want to come live up here.

"Oh my god! You are so slow!" Papyrus tugged on Sans' arm, disrupting both of your thought processes. Sans grinned lazily, allowing himself to be led down the steep, rocky path which eventually opened up into a familiar dirt road, lined with the twelve government-provided houses.

"Hey, look! It's the Queen!" Papyrus pointed, and Sans' eyes followed the trajectory of his finger. Sure enough, there was Toriel, standing with Frisk and Asgore on the front steps of one of the houses. "YOUR MAJESTY!" Papyrus called out with an enthusiastic wave. Both Toriel and Asgore turned to him. Upon catching sight of the three of you, Frisk's face lit up. They broke free from Toriel and sprinted up the road toward you, sending dust flying up from their feet. Papyrus cackled, stooped down, and held out his arms, twirling the kid around as they leapt into them. Sans chuckled and looked on wistfully.

"HUMAN! Why didn't you answer my texts last night?!" Papyrus demanded, holding them out at arm's length with a fake-stern expression. Frisk began to sign something, which Sans translated in your mind.

 **It was midnight… I was sleeping!**

"BAH! Napping, like usual!" As Papyrus scolded the child, the King and Queen approached at a slower pace, with Toriel holding something in her arms. She smiled warmly at you as she walked up to you.

"Good morning, Orion. Or, should I say, good afternoon?" You looked up at the sky and, sure enough, the sun was straight overhead. You grinned sheepishly at her.

"Eh, yeah, sorry… got a bit… distracted." You glanced over at Papyrus, who set Frisk back down onto their feet as he gawked at you.

"You changed again!" He accused. It took you a moment to realize what he was talking about but, yeah, you supposed he was right. At some point, you and Sans must've switched places, with neither of you noticing. That was a little disconcerting.

 _It's fine, you got this._ Sans grunted. Well, as long as he didn't mind, you weren't too worried about it.

"My dear, remember how I told you I would find you something more comfortable to wear?" Toriel pulled your attention back to her, and you nodded. She held the thing in her arms out to you, and you realized it was some kind of silky fabric. You took it from her, careful not to rip it with your sharp talons. "Well, the King is the closest to your size, and he said he would not mind giving you one of his robes. I thought you would like this one the best, as it will not show stains easily. What do you think?" You held out the cloth, letting it unfurl to its full length. It was a hooded robe, made of a dark burgundy silk that glistened attractively in the bright sunlight. It was plain, save for a golden delta ruin embroidered on the front. Indeed, its dark red color would not easily show the blood that was bound to stain it. The robe was probably meant to drag on the ground, but on you, you figured it would stop short at your ankles. Still, you didn't think you could have found anything better yourself.

"S'perfect, thank you." Your gaze flickered between Toriel and Asgore, both of them looking pleased. You felt a little tug on the bottom of the robe, and looked down to see Frisk running the fabric through their small hands with a blissful expression. You chuckled softly, glad that the kid approved of the texture. They looked up at you with a big grin, and you shifted your weight around awkwardly.

"I am glad you like it. I will have to cut holes in the back for your wings..." Toriel saved you by taking the garment from your hands, gathering it up so that it wouldn't touch the ground. "Oh, I hope I still have my needles and thread! It has been quite some time since I have had to stitch anything." She hummed thoughtfully before turning to head back to her house. Frisk trotted after her, but you hesitated, unsure if you were supposed to follow. Toriel looked over her shoulder and called out, "Come, Orion… I will need to get your measurements, after all." You lurched forward, glad to be needed for something. Papyrus followed after you, happily chattering to Frisk, who silently signed back to him. As you passed Asgore, you stopped for a moment.

"I'd like to talk to you later, if that's okay." You murmured, quiet enough that the others wouldn't hear you.

"Of course. Undyne and I have a meeting with the humans very soon, but you are welcome to come by for a cup of tea later this evening." You tilted your head, curious about what this 'meeting with the humans' entailed, but Sans pointed out that you didn't have time to ask. The others were quickly getting away from you, and you needed to catch up with them. So you simply nodded and thanked Asgore again before leaving him behind.

You trailed in the back of the group as you walked to Toriel's house, which was, indeed, right next to Papyrus'. Frisk ran ahead and held the door open for everyone, beaming with pride as Toriel, Papyrus, and you thanked them one after another. Even you had to admit, the kid was pretty adorable.

Although the houses were all identical in structure, Toriel's place had a distinctly different atmosphere from its neighbor. Unlike Papyrus, Alphys, and Undyne, Toriel was fully moved in, with not a single unpacked box in sight. Nothing in the house was carpeted, but the giant rug she'd laid down in the middle of the living room made the place feel much cozier. There was a big, lumpy couch against one wall, and a coffee table in front of it. She even owned a blocky, old-looking television set, though you knew there was no way she could've gotten reception this far up the mountain. Upon catching sight of the DVD player with a stack of children's movies next to it, your question was answered before you had a chance to ask it.

Toriel directed you to stand between the living room and the dining room, the only place in the house spacious enough for you to spread your wings. Even so, you could only stretch them about three quarters of the way before almost knocking over the vase full of flowers on the dining table. While Toriel took measurements of your wings, Papyrus and Frisk sat on the couch and played with the Rubik's cube. It was amusing, watching Paps try to teach the kid how to solve it. Frisk was pretty sharp, but apparently not skilled enough at spatial reasoning to figure out the three dimensional puzzle.

You were watching Frisk become increasingly frustrated with the cube when Toriel accidentally brushed a finger against your left deltoid muscle. Startled, you flinched hard, causing your wing to sweep across the dining table and send the centerpiece flying. The vase shattered against the wall, which made everyone flinch.

"Oh sh-shoot!" You barely avoided swearing and tucked your wings tight against your back, where they belonged. "I'm so s-sorry!" You stammered, teeth clenched. You wanted to clean up the mess, but you feared you would just find a way to make it worse somehow. You clutched your hands against your chest, trying to make yourself as small as possible.

"It is quite alright, my child." Toriel spoke soothingly, grabbing a broom from the closet and using it to clean up the mess. Frisk made a face and signed something that made Papyrus cackle.

 _Kid says they didn't like that vase, anyway._ Sans translated for you, a little late. Sensing your sudden lack of confidence, he reassured you, _Hey, don't worry about it. No one's cryin' over spilt flowers._

 _It's not that…_ You didn't have time to explain properly before Toriel finished sweeping up the dirt and broken glass. With the excitement over, Frisk and Papyrus went back to playing with the cube. Toriel bustled around you, talking about how those flowers had been wilting, and you'd probably done them a service by knocking them off the table. You knew everyone was trying to make you feel better, and it wasn't really a big deal, anyway. But you felt rotten, like this was just another sign that you didn't fit in with these people. You were too big, too scary... just too much in general.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the house. Toriel finished with your measurements and sat down at the table, wielding a pair of scissors, a needle, and some gold thread. You settled down at the seat across from her, sitting sideways on the chair because there would've been no room for your wings otherwise.

"I spoke to Asgore regarding your… situation." Toriel broke the silence with her soft voice, not looking up from her work. It was strange to know that people were talking about you to each other, especially the king and queen of monsters. You drummed your fingers on the table anxiously.

"What'd he say?" Toriel hummed and cut a smooth line through the fabric of the robe.

"You may want to speak to him yourself, but he agrees with me that healing magic alone will not help you." At the word "healing," Papyrus' head shot up.

"Healing magic?! Is someone hurt? I, The Great Papyrus, will heal them right away!" Toriel chuckled and said patiently,

"No, dear, we are talking about the possibility of returning Orion to their proper body. Er, bodies." You thought she may have blushed, but it was hard to tell under all that fur. "It will take more than a bit of healing to achieve such a feat." Sans pressed forward, urging you to point out,

"Wait, Papyrus, you don't even _have_ healing magic." Sans was sure of it; the only magic his little brother ever had was blue, same as Sans. Of course, Sans had a couple other tricks up his sleeves, but neither of them had ever been able to heal anyone. Papyrus, however, looked affronted.

"Of course I do! Queen Toriel taught me how!" You reeled from this new information.

 _Wait, what? That doesn't make sense!_ Sans argued, and you had to agree. Since when had Papyrus been mentored by Toriel, of all people? _Not only that, but how? Monsters don't just learn new branches of magic. It takes a lot of skill, plus inborn talent-_ It took a great effort to distance yourself from Sans' ranting, but you managed to focus enough to ask,

"W-when didja meet each other?" The bones in your hands began to rattle, and you slowly took them off of the table to place them on your lap.

"Oh! I'm glad you asked, it's such a great story!" Papyrus bounced in his seat and cleared his throat. Frisk stopped playing with the cube to listen. "One day, before I got accepted into the Guard, I was doing my usual patrol through the forest when suddenly I… um… got pushed off of a cliff! Yeah! I definitely didn't trip and fall on my own!" He sweated and cackled nervously before continuing, "A-anyway, I landed on my foot, and it hurt! But there was a big door right next to me, so I crawled over to it and asked for assistance. And Queen Toriel answered!" He beamed and looked over at Toriel, who smiled at him encouragingly. "She talked me through how to heal my foot. She said I might not be able to do it, but The Great Papyrus never fails at anything! Nyeh heh heh!" He puffed out his armour-clad chest proudly. "After that, I kept coming back to the door, and we kept teaching each other cool things, like how to take care of snails, and how to make spaghetti! It was tons of fun! And now, we get to talk to each other in person, which is even better! The end!" You stared at him, perplexed, while Toriel clapped politely.

"Well done, Papyrus. I could not have said it better, myself!" Meanwhile, you felt very unnerved. You thought the feeling was coming mostly from Sans.

 _That just… it doesn't make any sense!_ He protested in your mind, and you tried to sooth him,

 _Well, we knew some things would be different in this timeline. So Papyrus talked to Toriel through the door instead of you… it's not that outrageous, right?_

 _No, you don't get it… Paps doesn't_ have _healing magic. I would know if he did… wouldn't I?_ He sounded desperate, but you didn't really have a response. It was just something that Papyrus had never been forced to learn with Sans around, even if he'd always been capable of it. You didn't think that was a bad thing, but it didn't comfort Sans.

"Orion?" Toriel snapped you out of your thoughts, and you grimaced. You had to stop zoning out like that, especially in the middle of a conversation. Toriel didn't seem to mind, and continued as soon as she had your full attention. "I believe I am finished here, would you mind trying this on?" She held out the robe, which now sported two new slits in the back. The cuts were reinforced with gold thread, presumably so that they wouldn't rip further. You wondered how Toriel had managed to sew it so quickly; you hadn't been watching, but perhaps she'd used some kind of magic. You took the clothing from her and looked around awkwardly.

"Uh… s'there another room I can change in? Don' think I'll fit in the bathroom." After all, you barely fit in the dining room. Toriel smiled and gestured over her shoulder.

"Of course, dear. My bedroom is just there, on the right." You nodded gratefully and shuffled over to the door, careful not to knock anything else over on your way.

After closing the door softly behind you, you took a look around. The room was pretty standard, with nothing but a queen sized bed, a desk, a dresser, and a mirror in the corner. There was a leather-bound journal lying open on the desk. With a mischievous smirk, you peered over at it.

 _I am reading a book about anti-gravity. It is impossible to put down._ You read to Sans, who'd been sulking in the back of your mind. He couldn't help but to snort. You kept going, skimming the page for the nerdiest joke you could find.

 _I would tell you a chemistry joke, but I know I wouldn't get a reaction._ Both you and Sans laughed at that one, your chest cavity rumbling with suppressed chuckles.

 _What did one quantum physicist say when they wanted to fight another quantum physicist?_ Sans piped up with his own joke, one that was not on Toriel's list. You shrugged, grinning preemptively. _Let me atom!_ It was impossible to hold back laughter at that, but you cut yourself off when you realized the others had probably heard you through the walls. They'd think you were crazy, laughing at yourself…

 _Stop worrying about what they think._ Sans demanded bluntly. You knew he was right; you'd never been this insecure before, but you'd also never been in such a strange situation before. It made you feel… vulnerable.

 _I'll try._ You said simply, and started tugging off your sheet to give your hands something to do. It took a minute of frustrated picking to untie the knot you'd made, and even longer to coordinate your wings and arms in such a way that made it possible to slip the robe over your head. Once you figured it out, though, you had to admit you looked pretty badass. You stood in front of the mirror, twisting around to see how your wings looked coming out from your shoulders. You pulled the hood up, liking how it shrouded your skeletal face in darkness. _What do you think?_ You asked for Sans' opinion. He gave you a noncommittal grunt.

 _It's fine. I prefer my coat._ You clicked your jaw bones together, frowning a little. That was one of the many things you'd fought about in the first couple months of being together. For one thing, that coat was too small; it barely fit over your shoulders. And besides, Chara's knife had torn open the back of it during your fight, so it offered little coverage.

 _Well, Asgore and Toriel were nice enough to give this to us, so I think we should wear it._ Sans seemed to want to argue, but he stopped himself. He was trying not to start a fight, you realized. Perhaps he had taken Papyrus' advice to heart.

 _Let's go show everyone, then._ You smiled and nodded, your robe sweeping elegantly over the ground as you turned to walk out the door.


	6. Monsters Shouldn't Play With Dead Things

When you walked out of the bedroom, everyone oh'd and ah'd at your new garment. Toriel fussed over you, making sure the robe didn't bunch up in the back. You felt your face heat up at all the attention, and briefly wondered if you blushed blue like Sans used to, or if your embarrassment went unnoticed.

 **You look like the Grim Reaper!** Frisk exclaimed with elaborate, staccato hand gestures. You chuckled and rubbed the back of your head, unsure if that was a compliment or not. Papyrus demanded to know who the Grim Reaper was, and only got more confused the more you and Frisk tried to explain.

After that fiasco, Frisk wanted to show you around their house. As soon as they took your hand, you slipped back into your mind and let Sans take control.

 _What, not a fan of kids?_ Sans asked silently, sounding unsurprised.

 _I've got nothing against kids, but I'm just… I don't have much experience with them. And by "much" I mean "any."_ You explained as Frisk led Sans to their room, showing off their little twin-sized bed like it was the best thing since sliced bread. You felt a pang of familiarity at the sight of the sparsely furnished bedroom, since it was the very same room that Frisk was in at the end of the game, after the credits. Sans played off of the kid's excitement so easily, it was enviable to you. You'd been an only child, so you had no little siblings to speak of. No nieces, no nephews, and no younger cousins. You just didn't know how to act around kids, and tended to avoid them in general. It was lucky that Sans seemed to be a natural.

 _Luck's got nothin' to do with it._ He commented in your head while, out loud, he complimented a drawing Frisk was showing him. _I basically raised Paps, so I've got a lot of practice._

 _What about your parents?_ You asked, interested. Despite how, er, _intimately_ you and Sans knew each other, neither of you ever talked about yourselves. You knew little to nothing about Sans' past and, now that you thought of it, he didn't know anything about yours, either.

 _Not around._ He responded in a way that demanded the end of the conversation. You didn't push, letting him concentrate instead on Frisk's rapid signing as they brought him to the kitchen.

Once Frisk finished showing off the house (and Sans had finished making every furniture-related pun in his arsenal), they eagerly led him outside. Papyrus and Toriel followed, Papyrus bounding around Sans and Frisk energetically while Toriel sat on the front steps and simply observed. Frisk pointed out all of the houses that were occupied and told you who lived in each. That didn't take long, since there were only three houses being lived in. Toriel and Frisk in one; Papyrus, Undyne, and Alphys in another; and Asgore in the last. Strangely, although Papyrus and Toriel were neighbors, there was an empty house separating Asgore from the others, as though he were estranged from the other monsters.

You didn't have much time to contemplate that, as Frisk was quick to rope you and Papyrus into a game of hopscotch. They found a stick to draw out the squares and four rocks for you all to throw. To your surprise, they insisted that you and Sans take turns playing. You tried pleading out of the game, but Sans refused to relay your message to Frisk.

 _It'd make the kid happy if you played along._ He said, effectively guilting you into it.

You couldn't remember how to play hopscotch (you hadn't even been able to play it as a kid; hopping wasn't in the cards with your physical limitations), but luckily, you got to observe everyone else playing before it was your turn. Papyrus went first, approaching the game with the same enthusiasm he put into everything he did. It was comical, watching him jump around in that heavy armour, but he refused to take it off. Frisk went next, clearing the course with ease. Then came Sans, who strategically threw his stone into a square with a shortcut in it and used that to avoid hopping. This caused a cry of outrage from Papyrus, and elicited giggles from Frisk.

You wished you could've cheated in the same manner, but you weren't able to make the shortcut appear on your own and Sans flatly refused to help you. Instead, you had to play the game the old-fashioned way, which was a lot more difficult than Papyrus and Frisk made it look. You couldn't even balance on one foot, let alone hop around like that, and quickly lost your footing. You felt utterly ridiculous. Frisk winced sympathetically when you tripped, and gave you an encouraging smile when you got up and went back in line. Still, you had the distinct impression that you were not going to win this game.

Several turns proceeded in the same manner, but you thought you were improving with each attempt. You figured out that if you held your wings a certain way, it would improve your balance and allow you to hop nimbly from square to square. You still felt ridiculous; being a massive, skeletal abomination playing hopscotch, but it turned into the funny kind of ridiculous instead of the sad kind. Despite your improvements, hopscotch wasn't exactly the kind of schoolyard game that allowed for late-game comebacks, so you still lost. Papyrus won by a narrow margin, with Frisk humbly taking second and Sans trailing in third.

By the time that spectacle was over, the sun was beginning to sink low in the horizon. Toriel called Frisk to dinner, and invited you and Papyrus to join in. You hadn't noticed her vacate her spot on the front steps, but she must have at some point because, when you walked in the house, she'd already finished cooking a meal of ravioli. Papyrus was excited, and declared it to be the "treasure chest of the culinary world." You and Sans were just happy to have your first home-cooked meal in months. When Sans mentioned this to Toriel, she looked concerned.

"Oh dear… what have you been eating all this time?" Sans shrugged.

"Snacks from vending machines. My friend here," he tapped his skull with a smirk, "knows just where to find 'em. Their university's probably scramblin' to find whoever keeps stealing all of their pretzels and candy bars." Sans laughed, as did Frisk, but Papyrus and Toriel frowned.

"Orion! Stealing is bad! You shouldn't have done that!" Papyrus crossed his arms.

"Aw c'mon, Paps... how else was I supposed to feed myself?" He said it with a wink, but Sans was right. Even though you were a skeleton, somehow you still managed to get hungry. And it wasn't like the two of you could've gotten a job and paid for your food with hard-earned cash, so stealing was the only option if you wanted to survive.

"Hmm, that is true… alright! I suppose I can forgive you this once! However, as a member of the Royal Guard, I must insist that you stop stealing things! It is my job to uphold the law, and just because you are my brother does not mean I will let you off easy!" He pointed his fork at you threateningly but, even in his shiney, very real armour, he still managed to look about as intimidating as a fluffy bunny. Sans gave him a salute and a lazy, crooked smile.

"Scout's honor." Papyrus seemed content with this - even though you doubted he knew what a scout was - and went back to eating his ravioli.

"My dear, I must insist that you eat your dinners with us from now on." Toriel commanded with a motherly sternness. "I cannot allow you to continue sustaining yourself on nothing but human junk food." You were beginning to see that Toriel could be rather overbearing at times, and would have hesitated to accept such a demanding request had you been the one in control. But, since Sans was happy to comply with any plan that reduced the amount of work he had to do, he responded before you could object,

"That'd be great, thanks Tori." You sighed and slumped back, making sure Sans could feel the strength of your eye-roll even though you didn't have the physical ability to act it out. He chuckled at you, and you felt karma working in your favor when he was then forced to explain to a confused Toriel why he was laughing at himself.

After dinner, you, Sans, and Papyrus took your leave. The sun was beginning to set, and you figured Asgore had probably long since returned from his meeting. Sans continued to control the body as he walked Papyrus the short distance to his house, then abruptly handed the reins over to you as soon as his brother shut the front door.

 _Oh, I see how it is… you wanna have control for all the fun stuff but not the serious meetings!_ You teased as you walked to Asgore's place, but really, you didn't mind the arrangement. Sans had gotten to spend much needed time with his friends and family, and you got to handle the things that were more concerning to you at the moment.

 _Guilty as charged,_ He admitted, _It's kinda nice, not to have to do stuff all of the time. It's like sleeping, except you get to watch while someone else does all of your work for you._ You were baffled by this outlook, but didn't comment. You supposed you were glad that Sans could find an upside to all this, even if you thought it was strange. Now that you thought about it, it was true that he was never quite as pushy about having control as you were. Sure, sometimes he fought you for it, but that was happening less and less often as time wore on. _What can I say? It's a great excuse to be lazy._ He chuckled, and you shook your head. Strange.

As you approached Asgore's house, you saw that there was a light on in one of the windows. You noticed that there were small, newly planted shrubs in front of the house, and the added touch gave the otherwise sad-looking building a touch of warmth. With your mouth twitched into a soft smile, you rapped your knuckles on the front door.

You heard some shuffling from within the home before the door swung open, revealing Asgore. He was dressed casually, in an over-large t-shirt and shorts. You weren't sure why, but it surprised you. The getup reminded you of your own dad.

"Howdy, Orion, please come in." He smiled at you and stepped aside. You ducked low and folded your wings tight against your back so as to fit through the entrance. When you walked into the house with a murmured "thanks," you were surprised to see that there was another guest already there.

Alphys sat at the dining table, looking nervous. Well, more nervous than usual. You tilted your head quizzically.

"Sorry, am I interrupting somethin'?" You hesitated, looking from Alphys to Asgore. Alphys wrapped her hands around the cup of tea in front of her, her claws clicking on the ceramic cup.

"No, not at all. I invited Dr. Alphys here to discuss your situation, in fact." Asgore walked past you into the kitchen, busying himself with a tea kettle. "Orion, would you like a cup?" You were more of a coffee person, but you thought it rude to refuse.

"Sure, thanks." You shambled forward and sat down in the seat across from Alphys, taking in the decor of the house as you passed through the living room. The furnishings were almost identical to Toriel's home, so you figured the big ticket items like couches and tables had come with the houses. Once you'd settled in a chair, you noticed that Alphys was staring at you. You gave her a smile and a little wave, while she blushed and averted her gaze.

"S'alright, I know I'm a bit weird t' look at." You shrugged, trying to make it seem like you weren't as bothered as you actually were.

"O-oh no! It's not that! I was just wondering, h-how it all w-works… having t-two souls…?" You paused, trying to figure out how to explain. Alphys hurried to add, "Y-you don't have to t-tell me! If that makes you… un-uncomfortable."

"No, don't worry… it doesn't." You blinked, then settled back a little in your chair. "S'like we can read each other's minds, and talk back n' forth. Only one of us can control our body at a time, though." You stopped, not sure what else Alphys wanted to know. Over the scientist's shoulder, you noticed that Asgore was taking his time with the tea, as if not wanting to interrupt you.

"S-so… which of you is… t-talking right now?" Alphys looked curious despite her reluctance to push you.

"The, uh, human." Your fingers twitched. "I could get Sans, if… if you wanted…"

"No! T-that's okay." Alphys sipped her tea. During the lull in conversation, Asgore finally finished making your drink and set it in front of you, holding his own cup as he sat down between you and Alphys.

"Sans is Papyrus' brother, correct?" Asgore asked in a deep, rumbling voice. You cast your gaze down.

"Yup." You took a drink of your tea, fumbling with the too-small cup before you were able to get it to your teeth. The drink was nice, if a little too sweet. Like everything you ate, you felt it disappear somewhere between the back of your mouth and your throat. Still, it seemed to seep into your bones, warming you in a way that normal, human food never could.

"So, Orion, Tori… er, Toriel, told me that you were seeking advice on how to restore your human body." Alphys' eyes widened, and you nodded.

"Yes. She said there was some kinda magic that might help. She called it… necromancy?" If anything, Alphys looked even more surprised. You surmised by her expression that she'd never heard of it, either. Asgore hummed.

"I am afraid I do not know a lot about it," Frustration flared inside of you. Why were you here, then? "I do know it was a problem a long time ago, before the war between humans and monsters. The humans feared that our necromancers would prevent them from putting their dead to rest. According to their tradition, bodies were sacred and not to be disturbed. There were never any accounts of monsters defiling their dead; the necromancers practiced solely on animal corpses. But the fear was still there." Asgore rubbed the back of his head, looking troubled. "I am afraid I did not take the situation as seriously as I should have, and that may have been one of the many factors to contribute to the start of the war." He shook himself and focused his gaze back on you. "Most necromancers were members of a secret alliance, which allowed them to practice their craft in private. It was understandable, given the persecution they faced from humans and monsters alike. I knew the names of only a handful, and they were all turned to dust in the war. However…" Asgore leaned forward and folded his hands on the table. "I do know of someone who may be able to point you in the right direction. An old friend of mine named Gerson considers himself something of a historian." The idea of that seemed to amuse Asgore, since the corners of his mouth drew up into a smile. "He owns a vast collection of books and documents, some of them dating back to the pre-war times. If you ask him nicely, he may be willing to share them with you. Who knows… perhaps you could find an old roster from this alliance of necromancers." You nodded slowly and felt your chest tighten with determination.

"Thank you. I'll talk to 'im." You dipped your head, grateful to Asgore for taking the time to help you out like this. It was a little irritating, to be directed from person to person with no one giving you any clear answers, but that wasn't anyone's fault. You just had to be patient and keep asking around. Timidly, Alphys cut in,

"S-sorry, but, um… this all sounds like it's w-way out of my league… King Asgore, sir, why did you call me here?" Sure enough, Alphys looked quite lost. Clearly, she didn't have anything to contribute on the topic of raising the dead. Though, she did have some personal experience with that, now that you thought about it.

"Well, if Orion here can figure out how to bring life back to their human body, there is still the issue of separating their human soul from their monster soul." Asgore explained with a slight frown. "I am afraid such a thing has never been done before, but I was hoping, Alphys, that your soul extraction machine might be able to do the job?" Alphys looked puzzled for a moment before she understood what Asgore was asking her. She looked like how you felt whenever you had to explain something computer-related to your technology-illiterate parents - like she was struggling to hold back an eye-roll.

"All due respect, sir, but it's not a soul extraction machine, it's a _determination_ extraction machine. There's a big difference." Alphys sat up a little straighter and pushed up her glasses with one finger. "DT extraction takes only the most rigid part of the soul after it's been superheated and exposed to extreme levels of ionizing radiation. The rest of the soul gets left behind. Although, I suppose the same principle could work for separating a human soul from a monster soul, since human souls can tolerate more extreme physical conditions. But, no, that method would destroy the monster soul, and we definitely don't want that… Although, maybe I could modify the machine to simply _detect_ determination, vis-à-vis the human soul, but I would have to come up with an entirely different method of extraction…" Alphys quickly lost you in her rambling and, when you looked over at Asgore, you could tell he'd been lost from the start. Sans, however, was quite interested in what the scientist was saying. "...Yes, that might work. It would take some time to set it up, and of course we'd have to test it. But… oh, um… sir, I thought… didn't you f-fire me?" She suddenly lost steam, eyes fixed on her own hands. You narrowed your eyes at Asgore. If that was true and he really _had_ fired Alphys, you disapproved.

"Well, now, if you recall, I believe Toriel was the one to relieve you of your duties. However, I was the one who hired you in the first place, so I believe only I have the authority to fire you. Don't you think, Orion?" You started when Asgore addressed you. You hadn't thought he'd seen you flash him a dirty look, and your face heated up.

"Uh, yeah. I think so." Asgore smiled kindly at Alphys.

"There, see? You are still the Royal Scientist as far as I am concerned." Alphys sniffled a little and wiped her eyes before standing up from the table. To your amusement, she was actually shorter standing up than she had been while sitting on the chair.

"T-thank you, Asgore. I w-won't let you down this time! I'll get to work right away!" She turned to leave, but froze when she caught sight of the view out the window. You turned to look, too, and saw that it was pitch black outside. "Eheh, maybe I'll wait until tomorrow?" Alphys looked back sheepishly, and Asgore chuckled.

"That sounds excellent, Dr. Alphys. If you are heading back home, then I wish you goodnight." Alphys nodded, and you quickly added in,

"Yeah, g'night Alphys. Thanks for… everything."

"O-oh! It's nothing! I s-should be th-thanking you…" She wrung her hands together, "U-uh, anyway, g-goodnight!" You cocked your head, unsure what she'd meant by that. But you didn't have time to ask before Alphys had scurried through the front door, shutting it quietly behind her.

"She certainly seems eager." Asgore commented before taking a sip of his tea. After looking down at your own drink, you realized you hadn't drank much of it. You took a big gulp of lukewarm tea to compensate. "Orion, may I ask you a question?" The request seemed innocent enough, but, since it was from the King of monsters, it made you nervous.

"S-sure." Your wings rustled, a single feather falling from one of them without your notice.

"How did you come to be in this state? Frisk told Toriel and I that Papyrus' brother absorbed your human soul, which then led to the breaking of the Barrier, but they seemed not to know how or why." You leaned back in your chair thoughtfully.

"We did it so that we could leave the Underground. We had t' be on the surface in order to help Frisk break the Barrier…" Before you could elaborate, Asgore asked another question,

"I understand why the monster part of you would give up so much to free our kind, but, if it is not too personal to ask, why did the human part of you sacrifice their life for our freedom?" He leaned forward, his eyes intent on you. The way he addressed you - like you were not the human nor the monster, but something else entirely - made it appear as though he didn't really understand how the whole shared-body thing worked. You didn't correct him, though. The question he had posed was difficult enough to answer, as it was.

"When I was in the Underground, and even before that, I… I did some bad things. It's really messy and hard to explain but, in the end, I felt like this was the only way I could redeem myself." Asgore hummed, his mouth in a thin line. You prayed that he wouldn't ask for more details and, to your relief, he didn't.

"Well, in that case, I hope you do not come to regret your choice. Understand that, while I would like to help you, there are limits to what I can do. We monsters are going through turbulent times and, while I can spare you Alphys, I cannot make your problems my priority right now." You nodded solemnly. This was the most serious you'd ever heard Asgore; usually his voice had a lighthearted undertone to it, regardless of what he was talking about. But this, you took to heart, and made a note not to bother the King in the future unless you had no other option. "That said, you should know that we receive weekly supply drops from the humans in the city. If there are ever any material items you need, please let me know so that I can put in a request for them." He smiled at you, and you grinned back.

"I can't thank you enough, Asgore…. your majesty." Tentatively, you held out your left hand to shake. He took it, his giant paws enveloping your thin, skeletal fingers completely.

"You are very welcome." As soon as he let go of you, Asgore covered his mouth to yawn. "Excuse me, but it has been a long day. I think I will turn in now… perhaps you should get some rest, too." He suggested as both of you stood from your chairs.

"I will. G'night, then."

"Good night, Orion." You walked to the door carefully, your wing bumping the coffee table in the living room despite your best efforts not to touch anything. With one last wave to the King, you slipped through the door and into the brisk, night air.

As you picked your way down the dirt road, mulling over the long talk you just had, you felt Sans nudge you from within your mind.

 _Wanna try the shortcut yourself, or do you want me to take care of it?_

"I'll do it, if you help me get started." You replied out loud. You much preferred to speak verbally rather than through the weird telepathy you and Sans shared. You thought that, the more you spoke, the more you were beginning to overcome your speech impairment. It gave you hope that you might eventually be able to talk as clearly as Sans. "You've been pretty quiet. Somethin' on your mind?"

 _No, not really._ You weren't sure that was entirely true, but he didn't give you time to think about it. _We gonna go pay Gerson a visit tomorrow?_

"S'pose so, yeah." Sans hummed happily.

 _Awesome. I haven't seen that old turtle since I was a baby bones._ His mood was sullied a little as he realized that Gerson wouldn't remember him at all, but still, he looked forward to seeing him again. Sans looked forward to so little anymore that his enthusiasm automatically put you in an optimistic mood, too.

Once you reached the shortcut, Sans helped you gather up enough magic to peel it open. Without another word, you stepped through the wormhole, leaving behind the moonlit monster camp with the feeling that you were finally making some progress.


	7. Brother's Keeper

(A/N: This is the last chapter before you're all caught up to what I've written so far. This means that updates won't come as frequently. I don't have a proper update schedule, but typically chapters take about 3-5 days to write. Still, I'd say that's pretty quick considering each chapter averages 4k words, so no complaining :P

Enjoy the chapter!)

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The next morning, you woke up early, but not as early as Sans. He'd taken the first shift sleeping again, and, by the time you'd woken up from your turn, he was just finishing up the last of the daily chores that you usually did together. Typically, when one of you was sleeping, the other would lie down or sit quietly so as not to disturb the one resting. But, when you woke up this time, it was to the very disorienting feeling of your body dumping out a bucket of water without your say-so.

 _W-what?_ You thought blearily. Instinctively, you tried to wrest back control, but your mind was still fuzzy with sleep and Sans easily batted you away.

"Sorry, did I wake you up?" His tone of voice made him sound very not sorry. As you regained consciousness, you felt that your toes were cold and wet. He must've dumped the bucket of water on his own feet to startle you awake. Bastard. "I cleaned up the barn a little and put new ice in the trough, so we can get going right away." As he spoke, he walked over to the trough, placing the now-empty bucket back underneath the dripping hole at the bottom of the container.

 _Wow. You sure are excited to see this guy, huh?_ As pissed as you were about being woken up so abruptly, you had to admire his sudden motivation. Why the hell was he so amped up about visiting an old shopkeeper?

"Kinda, yeah." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Way back, when Papyrus was little - and I mean _really_ little, kid couldn't even hold his head up on his own - Gerson helped me out a bit. A lot, actually." Sans shrugged and walked out of the barn, closing the door carefully behind him. "I kinda gave him hell… stole a lot of stuff from his shop… I don't think he liked me much. But he kept leavin' things out for me anyway. I think he came to terms with the fact that he wasn't gonna be able to stop me stealing from him, so he figured it'd be easier for us both if he just gave me what I needed." Sans laughed weakly, but you felt a twinge of guilt from him. "Once I got older and figured out how to support myself and Paps, I kinda stopped visiting him. Guess I didn't really think he'd want to talk to me, after all the trouble I caused him. But it'd be nice to see the old geezer again. Especially after seeing him in… well, you know." That, you did. There were a lot of things that had surprised Sans when the two of you were forced to play Undertale together. Seeing Gerson must've been one among many.

 _That was kind of him._ You murmured, deep in thought as Sans traveled through a series of shortcuts. After playing Undertale so many times, you'd thought you knew everything there was to know about the game's world and characters. Even though you knew better now, it was still surprising to hear that these two people, who you'd assumed had never met each other, actually went way back.

 _Could you knock it off? I don't want to think about that game._ Sans growled, silently this time, since you were walking through a more populated part of Waterfall.

 _Sorry._ You apologized before promptly shutting up, doing your best to clear your mind, or at least block Sans from hearing your thoughts so easily. Sans sighed and shook his head.

 _You're not very good at that, you know. I can still hear you._

 _Shhhh! You hear nothing._ He laughed at you, but you both sobered up as you came up on the entrance to Gerson's shop. Sans peeked his head in the doorway cautiously. The game didn't really do the place justice; it was larger than you'd expected, like a proper market with multiple stalls full of exotic-looking foods. Most of the items for sale were foodstuffs, but there was a small section in the corner of the cavern full of non-edible merchandise. As Sans' eyes roved over the shop, you caught sight of a familiar looking turtle checking out a young, deer-like monster at the counter.

Politely, Sans queued up behind the teen, who was buying a single crabapple. The kid seemed to be arguing with Gerson about the price.

"Didn'cha read the sign, young'un? No haggling, you gotta pay what's on the tag." Sure enough, when Sans glanced down, you saw that there was a sign on the counter that read "Fixed Price, No Bargaining." The fawn huffed angrily and dug in their pocket, which was bulging with gold coins. With his eyes now drawn to the kid's pants, Sans noticed there was something sticking out of their back pocket. It looked like a package of some kind of spice, with the tag still hanging off of it. It was quite expensive, and they clearly didn't intend on paying for it. Sans frowned and narrowed his eyes.

"There, happy?" The teen retorted as they slapped their money on the counter. Gerson counted it and nodded.

"Take care of yourself, kid!" The fawn turned around before Gerson even finished talking, heading for the door with a scowl on their face. Discretely, Sans stepped in front of the kid, forcing them to bump into him on their way out.

"Watch it!" They snapped, but, while they weren't paying attention, Sans' long fingers nimbly plucked the unpaid-for spice package from their pocket.

"Sorry." He winked, hiding the item up the sleeve of his robe. Oblivious to what had just happened, the teen whirled back around and stalked out the open door. Sans watched them leave before stepping forward, handing the package out to Gerson. "Kid was gonna make off with this, thought you might like it back." The turtle took the package and eyed it with scrutiny before bursting into wheezing laughter, slapping a hand on his knee.

"Wahaha! You're a tricky one, aren't'cha? 'Fraid these ol' eyes aren't fit for catchin' thieving rascals anymore. Thanks, stranger!" Sans grinned, feeling a sense of righteous justice. He wondered if this made up for all of the stuff he'd stolen from Gerson in another timeline. At least he'd only taken what he absolutely needed; that deer-kid was just being cheap. "I've never seen you around before, 'least not that I recall. What's your name, bucko?" You nudged Sans, who sighed imperceptibly. He still didn't like sharing a name with you; it bothered him for reasons he couldn't explain. But, if the two of you were going to start talking to people instead of living as a hermit in the barn like you'd been doing, it was easier not to have to explain your unique situation every time you met someone new. Even Sans had to admit that.

"Orion. And you're right, we haven't met." Gerson set down the spice package, placing his palms on the counter.

"Well, I'll be… not many folks left down here that I haven't met! So, Orion, what can I do you for?"

"King Asgore sent me. I'm looking for a book, and he said you were one _shell_ of a historian." Sans winked. It took the turtle a moment, but once he got the joke, he cackled.

"Wahaha! A good samaritan _and_ a jokester… you must really be buttering me up, kid! What's this book you're lookin' for?" Sans glanced around as nonchalantly as he could manage before leaning his elbows on the counter. From what he gathered from Toriel and Asgore, this necromancy stuff was pretty taboo; he didn't really want word getting out that he was messing around with dark magic. Fortunately, there were no other customers in the store, as it was still quite early in the morning.

"I'd like to see anything you've got on the subject of necromancy. There's not a lot of info out there about it, but maybe you have something from before the war?" He asked hopefully. Gerson narrowed his one good eye.

"You say ol' King Fluffybuns sent you?"

"Yes." Sans held his gaze, and Gerson clicked his tongue against his beak.

"That's a pretty tall ask, kiddo! Sorry to say that I don't have much from the pre-war days, most of the books from way back when got left up on the surface. And necromancy… yeesh, that's some heavy stuff." Gerson stroked his beard, looking at Sans thoughtfully. "But, hey, if you don't wanna take my word for it, I suppose I can let you take a look at my collection. It's in the back!" He pointed over his shoulder with a thumb. Sure enough, there was an unassuming backdoor that looked like it was about ready to fall off its hinges. Sans dipped his head gratefully.

"Thanks, Gerson." The turtle waved him off.

"Consider it repayment for those 60 pieces of gold you saved me!" He waved the spice package from earlier, chuckling under his breath as he limped around to the stall where the almost-stolen item had come from. Taking that as his cue to leave, Sans slipped behind the counter and through the rickety backdoor.

Upon entering the backroom and flicking on the single light bulb that illuminated it, Sans immediately opted out and gave you control instead. It took you a second longer to see why; the room was small, but it was stacked from floor to ceiling with old, musty books with seemingly no organization. Finding anything useful in the piles was going to take a lot of work, and Sans was having none of it.

 _Ugh, fine. But if I have to do all of the searching, then you're not allowed to fall asleep._ You bargained with Sans in your mind while shuffling forward to examine the nearest stack of books.

 _No promises._ You rolled your eyes and studiously got to work.

As it turned out, there was, in fact, some method to the old turtle's madness. The books seemed to have been grouped by subject, albeit loosely. It wasn't long before you found a couple stacks all devoted to books about magic. Unfortunately, the older books were all on the bottoms of the stacks, so it took a lot of digging and reorganizing before you even got to look at anything that could've been potentially helpful. Even then, you were hard pressed to find anything that even mentioned necromancy. It didn't help that the books that might've been pre-war were written in old english, which might as well have been a completely different language for all you were able to understand it.

After what must've been at least an hour of combing through dusty books to no avail, you growled frustratedly and flopped backwards from your sitting position onto the ground. You stared fixedly up at the lone light bulb hanging from the ceiling as it swayed back and forth slightly. How was it possible that there was _nothing_ about necromancy in any of these books? Of the three pre-war monsters you knew, all of them had heard of the branch of magic. So why did none of these authors ever so much as mention it? Maybe it was such a touchy subject that no one dared write about it. You groaned and dragged a hand over your face.

 _Wait, what's that?_ Sans asked urgently.

 _What's what?_ You sat up again, looking around.

 _That book up there, to your left… I thought I saw…_ You turned your head up and to the left, but still weren't seeing anything unusual. You hadn't even touched those stacks of books, since they were all written in foreign languages that you didn't have a prayer of understanding. _Yes! Look up, at the very top of that stack. There's a book written in Gaster's language!_ Curious, you directed your gaze to the first book on the first pile. Sure enough, on its spine were familiar symbols. You stood up so that Sans could get a better look at it.

" _The Book of the Dead"_ Sans read. Instantly, you snatched up the book, wiping the dust off of the cover. It looked old, but oddly well-preserved, unlike most of the other ancient books in Gerson's collection. It was like it had never been read before.

 _Do you think…?_ Sans didn't need to complete his question, since you were already thumbing through the first initial pages in search of an author. But there was none. Whoever wrote the book hadn't put their name on it.

"Weird…" You mumbled out loud before flipping through the bulk of the book. It was all written in wingdings… the whole damn thing. Granted, it wasn't a huge book, but still. That was a lot of effort to go through, drawing all of those symbols by hand.

 _Look at the contents._ Sans demanded. You skipped back to the front of the book until you found what you thought looked like a table of contents. _You've got to be kidding me… it's about necromancy. All of it, look... "Chapter 1: The Theory Behind Raising the Dead," "Chapter 2: Useful Herbs and Chants," "Chapter 3: Introduction to Black Magic"... it's a fucking how-to book._ You were both stunned into silence as you skimmed over the chapter titles. It reminded you of a school textbook, if schools taught kids how to reanimate corpses.

 _Why's it written in that language, though?_ You asked Sans.

 _I have no idea._ There was a pregnant pause, in which you and Sans stared blankly at the mysterious book. _We should ask Gerson where he got it. Maybe he knows the author?_ Both of you buzzed with excitement at the thought. You snapped the book shut and tucked it under your arm before throwing open the door with more gusto than you'd intended.

"Yikes!" Gerson, who'd been standing behind the counter, jumped at the sound of the door banging open behind him. "What's got your unders in a twist, kiddo?"

"Oh, sorry!" You looked back at the door to make sure it was still hanging on to the frame after that rough treatment. Miraculously, it was still intact. "I just found this book… do you remember where you got it? Or who wrote it? There's no author..." Gerson reached out for the book.

"Now, let's see here…" The turtle picked up a monocle from the counter and held it up to his good eye, "Haven't a clue! Funny you should pick this book, though. These symbols," He tapped the title of the book, "It's an old, secret language that was used by none other than a cult of necromancers."

"They had a secret language?" You asked skeptically. This was sounding more illuminati-ish by the minute.

"Well sure! They were a real shady bunch, with their codes and their passwords. Can't really blame 'em, what with all the persecution they faced." Gerson scratched his chin. "It's a real shame… don't think there's anyone alive who'd be able to translate this."

"Can I buy it off of you, anyway?" As the words left your mouth, you realized you didn't have any money. Thankfully, the shopkeeper waved you off.

"Bah! You can keep it, if you think you can get any use out of it!" A lopsided grin lit up your face.

"Thanks! You've been a big help." You took the book back from Gerson and slipped it carefully into your robe, tucking it in an inconspicuous pocket. As you were about to leave, Gerson interrupted you.

"Say, Orion… you wouldn't happen to be related to a fella named Papyrus, would you?" You furrowed your brow, confused. How did Gerson know Paps, if Sans hadn't been around to introduce them?

"He's my… uh… half-brother." Well, it wasn't a total lie. Gerson hummed knowingly.

"You keep in touch with 'im?"

"Um… yes?" You thought this was a strange question coming from the shopkeeper. "How do you know Papyrus?" Gerson barked a short laugh.

"How do _I_ know Papyrus?! I practically raised the kid!" You stared at the turtle incredulously.

"What?"

"Yeah! He didn't tell you?" You shook your head numbly. "It's a great story! The little tyke got dropped off on my doorstep when he was just a tiny thing. Now, I don't have much experience with kids, and I had no idea where he came from… but what else was I gonna do, if not take him in?" Gerson leaned back on the counter, the wood creaking under his weight. "One thing led to another, and the kid ended up stayin' with me. Well, me n' Undyne's mom took turns lookin' out for him. Oh, he and that little urchin got into a whole barrel o' trouble when they were young! They were stuck to each other like glue, almost like brother and sister. 'Cept they got along way better than real siblings, wahaha!" The old turtle rambled and Sans shrunk back, blocking himself off from you. That was not a good sign. "Anyway, I set 'im up with a house in Snowdin once he got too big to be staying with me. Next time you see him, you tell that bag o' bones to come visit me once in awhile. Since he got accepted into the Royal Guard, he never comes around here anymore!" You felt a drop of sweat roll down your temple. A hand flew up to your chest as it constricted, the ribs rattling around and quivering against each other. Gerson narrowed his one good eye. "Hey, you okay, kid?"

"M'fine." You backed away, bumping into the counter as you went. "Gotta go, thanks for the book!" With that, you practically ran out of the shop, almost trampling a couple of fish-like shoppers in your haste to leave.

You sprinted through the tunnels of Waterfall with no regard for where you were going. It wasn't long before you found yourself at a dead end, with a single, lone echo flower quietly murmuring, "H-hey! You aren't gonna tell my parents about this, are you?" Chest heaving, you leaned against the stone wall, panting heavily. There was no one around in these parts, so you let yourself speak out loud.

"S-sans?" No response. "C'mon, man, you're makin' the body freak out." At least, you were fairly certain it wasn't your fault that your hands were shaking and your bones rattling. "S'about Pap, right? He's the only reason you ever get this upset about anything." You gave him a chance to respond, but no cigar. "Alright, well… I guess I don't know much about havin' a little brother… or raising that brother on nothin' but stolen food 'cause your parents weren't around… but I'm guessin' you're not happy that someone else stepped up to take care of Paps in your place, right?" Despite his efforts to shield himself from you, you felt Sans' emotions flare. You winced and brought your hand up to cradle your own head.

"Okay, okay… I guess that sucks, doin' all that work for him and then having it all erased. But, hey, at least Gerson was around to give him a home. Maybe it was even better for him, this way…" You groaned in pain as Sans writhed in your mind. His hurt was so visceral and intense, like a physical pain. It reminded you of those first few days after you'd gotten your soul back; you were feeling emotions that didn't truly belong to you. Only this time, it was so much worse because the agony was justified.

"T-that was the w-wrong… the wrong thing t' say, huh?" You admitted breathlessly before trying again. "Sans, listen… you know all of that stuff still happened, right? All of those other timelines, all of the things we chose to spend our time on… it's all just as real and valid as what's happening right now." You didn't even realize it was true until you said it. The more you spoke, the more confident you became in what you were saying. "If you hadn't sacrificed so much to take care of Paps, who knows what would've happened? Everything could be totally different right now. So it still matters, even though he doesn't remember. Every single timeline, they all contributed to where we are today. They all matter. Do you get what I'm sayin'?" Sans had gone very still as you talked, the walls he'd made around himself slowly relaxing.

 _I think so._ He whispered, barely understandable. You forced yourself to breath slowly and evenly, hoping the rhythm would calm Sans. _When'd you get so smart, kid?_ He asked weakly, and you laughed.

"What're you talkin' about? I've always been smart, it just took you this long t' notice." The echo flower at your feet started parroting your words. You watched it for a moment before getting an idea. You crouched down and whispered,

"This'll pass, and things will get better for you eventually." Job done, you straightened up, listened to the flower repeat you once, and began to walk away. Sans didn't voice his question, but you felt it simmering just below the surface anyway. "Just in case someone comes here to brood, like we did. Might help them to hear somethin' encouraging." You waded through a patch of ankle-deep water, deciding not to try to look for any shortcuts. The walk would do you good, you felt.

 _Thanks._ Sans said, and you rubbed the back of your neck. You weren't really sure how to handle such genuine gratitude from him.

"Yeah. No problem." You pulled up your hood, preferring to have it on when you were in control. The two of you were quiet for a while, until you remembered the heavy weight of the book in your pocket.

"It's pretty weird, isn't it? That necromancers used wingdings to communicate, which just happens to be Gaster's first name and the language he writes in." You mused out loud.

 _Is that what it's called?_ Oh, right. Sans wouldn't know that the cryptic code already had a name.

"Yup. It's a font type on human computers. That's how I was able to translate those blueprints when I snuck into your basement… I just copied the font from Papyrus' computer."

 _Why would humans use an ancient, necromancer language as a font?_ You didn't really have an answer to that.

"Why would Gaster use an ancient, necromancer language on his blueprints?" Both of you were stumped into silence. It was all connected somehow, but why? It didn't make sense. And did it even matter? You had this book, which seemed to hold an invaluable wealth of information on necromancy. You were well on your way to solving your own problems, so why did this nag at you so much?

"O-Orion!" A high-pitched voice called out to you. You snapped to attention and saw, to your surprise, that you were already in Hotland, about to enter the L1 elevator. Alphys was waving at you from the door to her lab. You backtracked and jogged over to her.

"Hey, Alphys. What's up?" She smiled up at you, craning her neck in order to look at you.

"I was j-just working on some plans for modifying the DTEM… um, the Determination Extraction Machine… for the past six hours, eheh." Sure enough, now that you were closer, you saw that Alphys looked disheveled, as though she'd been up most of the night.

"Alphys… I'm really glad you're helping me with this, but you don't need to work yourself into the ground. I'm sure there's lots of other things you need to do, too." Alphys shook her head vigorously.

"N-no! There's really not… um… I kind of… messed up before. Technically, the Queen fired me, b-but I think King Asgore is using this project as a way for me to… redeem myself." She looked sheepish. You thought you understood now what she'd meant when she said she should've been the one thanking you last night.

"Alright, but you still need sleep, no?" She shrugged, eyes downcast.

"I guess so… I just really want to do this right, this time." You had the urge to pat her on the shoulder, but didn't think she'd appreciate the physical contact. Instead, you just gave her a smile.

"You will. I trust you." Alphys blushed a deep red before snapping out of it.

"Oh! I just remembered, I called you over to ask… where are you keeping the, uh… your human body?" You gritted your teeth and shifted your weight from foot to foot. You had a feeling she was going to want to do something to it, and you just didn't want anyone else touching it. She seemed to sense your reluctance and quickly cut in, "I-I'm not going to m-mess with it, or anything, I was just wondering… um, I did some research and, well, I think you should keep it frozen. I have some refrigerators in my lab, you could put it in there if you want. B-but, uh, you don't have to!" Nervous sweat formed on her brow, but you calmed down at her explanation.

"Okay. Yeah, that'd probably be easier." You felt conflicted. On one hand, it'd be a relief not to have that body weighing on the back of your mind constantly. You always had to worry about topping off the ice, making sure the barn door was shut, making sure humans didn't stumble upon the barn by chance. But, on the other hand, having your body in someone else's hands made you more than a little anxious. Logically, you knew that a freezer in Alphys' lab was much safer than a trough in an abandoned barn, but it was hard to relinquish control.

"G-great! You can bring it by w-whenever. I'll be in the lab!" You nodded curtly and swallowed.

"Kay. See you soon." Alphys nodded, blushed, and awkwardly slid the door shut, making you chuckle under your breath. You continued back toward the elevator, this time with a purpose.

 _Do we trust her, though?_ Sans, who hadn't voiced an opinion during that conversation, spoke up now that you were alone. _I mean, she did mess up big time with the DT Extractor. Who's to say she won't screw this up, too? Personally, I'd rather be stuck as Orion forever than be turned into a melted glob of bones._

 _I trust her._ You replied with confidence. _But if it would make you feel better, maybe you could ask if she wants your help? You are a scientist, after all._ Sans snorted derisively.

 _A shitty one… the only project I've ever worked on was that time machine, and I never even got to finish it._

 _That's just because you haven't applied yourself. I bet Alphys would be willing to teach you what she knows. After all, she seems to like bouncing her ideas off of other people. Maybe that was part of why her experiment failed last time… she didn't have anyone to talk to._

 _You sayin' I'm lazy? You're starting to sound like Papyrus now._ Still, you felt that Sans was coming around to the idea. As much as he protested, he liked the thought of being involved in the soul extraction. It interested him, both on a personal level and an intellectual level. _Maybe I'll ask her about it later. No promises, though._ You were pleased enough with that response, and stopped pestering him about it.

It wasn't long after that before you reached Mettaton's hotel. You weren't interested in walking all the way through New Home, plus, you just wanted to avoid walking through the Judgement Hall, as it was the site of most of your nightmares. So instead, you asked Sans to help you find a suitable shortcut. There were no shortcuts that led straight from the Underground to the surface (a fact which now made sense to Sans, now that he knew that the Underground and the surface used to reside in completely different dimensions), so you had to settle for one that put you right next to where the barrier used to stand. You took a moment to look out on the monster camp, which was quiet and dead-looking at this time of day, when you saw a flash of something out of the corner of your eye. Your gaze snapped up, looking for the source of the movement. It took less than a second for you to see it; a human, standing in the guard tower on the Northwest corner of the monster camp. You squinted, and thought you saw them holding a pair of binoculars.

 _Think they see us?_ You asked, worried. You were fairly certain you had better eyesight than a normal human, but if they had some kind of magnifier, there was a good chance they could see you standing on the cliff face.

 _Definitely. That's probably their job; to keep track of monsters coming in and out._ You ground your teeth anxiously. You supposed you probably just looked like any other monster to the humans, but what would they do if they knew what you actually were? _Hey, don't worry about it. They don't know shit, and they've got no reason to think we're anything special._ You nodded and squared your shoulders, walking stiffly down the narrow path that led to the road. But, instead of walking down to the houses, you veered off into the forest, making sure you were completely hidden in the trees before using your usual shortcut to the barn. As soon as the rusted building came into view, you sighed in relief.

 _I bet they've seen us before, too. I wonder what they think we're doing when we disappear into the trees like that._ You picked at the sleeve of your robe, worrying the fabric with your boney fingers.

 _Who cares? It's none of their business._ With a great heave, you pulled open the barn door, eyes darting around to make sure everything was still where you'd left it this morning.

 _But we could get in trouble for leaving the camp if they find out._ Finding that everything was in its rightful place, you approached the ice-filled trough, not bothering to close the door behind you since you planned on leaving right away.

 _What're they gonna do? Throw us in jail? We'll just take a shortcut out._ You felt a flash of frustration toward Sans. He should take these things more seriously. Sure, you couldn't be held anywhere against your will, but what if you caused trouble for Asgore and the other monsters? That was the last thing you wanted to do.

But, you had more pressing matters to attend to. Specifically, bringing your body back to Alphys. Your fingers twitched as you hovered over the trough. All you had to do was reach inside and…

You didn't realize you were sweating until a drop fell from your forehead into the ice below. You shivered as a sense of dread began building in your nonexistent gut.

 _Want me to do it?_ Sans offered kindly. You nodded wordlessly, and quickly retreated so that Sans could take the body.

As soon as he was in control, Sans straightened his back and rolled up the sleeves of the robe. He dropped the hood, too, but you were too disturbed by what was about to happen to be annoyed about that. Carefully, Sans plunged his hands into the ice. Both of you felt the cold on your arms, but your bones weren't as bothered by the frigid temperatures as skin would've been. He dug around until he was cradling the dead weight securely, then lifted it gently out of the trough, the ice making loud clattering sounds as it shifted to accommodate the extra space.

You took one good look at your own cold, dead skin before completely shutting down.


	8. Dancing with the Dead

It wasn't like the last time you'd turned yourself off. Months ago, back when you and Sans had been fetching your computer, you'd passed out, in a sense. This time, your meltdown was far calmer… as though you were possessed. Systematically, you shut down each of your senses, starting with sight and ending with touch. It was something that you usually struggled to do, but you found it much easier when presented with this situation that you really, _really_ did not want to deal with. It wasn't long before you couldn't see yourself, or hear stray pieces of ice fall to the floor, or even feel the weight of your body in your arms. The numbness was peaceful, actually. You wondered if this was how Sans felt whenever he blocked himself off to you.

Speaking of Sans, you distantly felt him as he gave you a frantic, mental shove. It was the only thing you felt, in fact. You didn't get why he was so worried - you were doing just fine in your own little bubble, thank you very much. You tried to reach out to tell him that, but, as you opened yourself up to communication, you started to feel what was happening in reality again. You were having none of that, so you retreated back to your corner. You liked your corner, it was a nice place. Sans would just have to deal without you for five minutes. Heaven knows he left you all alone in the real world often enough; it was time he got a taste of his own medicine.

While floating in darkness, you felt like you finally had some alone time. Usually, you had trouble blocking Sans from reading your thoughts… hell, Sans had just been teasing you about it earlier that morning. But you knew that you'd finally succeeded; he wouldn't be able to hear you now, no matter how hard he tried. You felt a little satisfaction in that.

However, as the shock of seeing your dead self started to wear off, you realized a flaw in your plan. While you were hiding away in the abyss-like purgatory of your mind, you had no concept of time. How long should you stay like this? When would the danger be past? You began to worry, and your resolve to stay in this state began to crumble. You started to notice things, like Sans' voice calling to you…

 _Hey! Are you coming around finally? Wake up!_ You moaned as things slowly began to come back to you. It was much like the first time you'd "woken up" in this body after dying; disorienting, confusing, and almost nauseating. You found that you were sitting on something soft, with the indistinct murmuring of a television filling your ears.

 _Jesus… you were really deep in there, huh, kid?_ Sans managed to sound both relieved and annoyed at the same time.

 _Huh? Where…?_ As you continued to come back to your senses, realization slowly dawned on you. It was the kid sitting on the floor in front of you that gave it away; you were at Toriel's house. You were lounging on the couch, watching some kid's cartoon on TV, while Frisk sat on your feet and leaned backwards into your legs. It was kind of endearing, if a little uncomfortable. _Why are we at Toriel's? What happened?_

 _I picked up your body and you just freaked. You weren't listening to me… I couldn't even feel you. It was kind of like when we went in your room to get your computer, but worse._ You felt a twinge of residual fear from Sans. You hadn't realized that you disappearing like that would affect him so much, and felt bad. _I brought the body to Alphys' lab… covered it in that old sheet so no one would see what I was carrying... but you still wouldn't wake up. So I came here._

 _I don't follow. Why'd you go to Toriel's house?_ You didn't get an answer before the Queen herself walked out from the kitchen. The smell of butterscotch and cinnamon followed her through the door. Both Frisk and Sans looked up at her as she entered, Frisk signing something that Sans didn't catch.

"Have patience, my child. It needs to cool first!" Toriel smiled warmly, while Frisk slumped back against Sans' legs and turned to watch the program again.

"Tori, the, uh… problem solved itself." Sans coughed, his face heating up slightly. He must've gone to Toriel for help, you figured. But why? Sans disappeared himself sometimes, surely he knew you'd be back eventually, right?

 _But you never pull that sort of crap. You're always… I dunno… present. It kinda freaked me out, okay?_ Sans rubbed his upper arm self-consciously.

 _Awww… does little Sansy care about me?_ In reality, you were touched, but with how much Sans was blushing about it, you knew you couldn't let him off without teasing him a little first.

 _Shut up._ You laughed, and even Sans smiled. Toriel looked elated.

"Oh! I am very glad. So… everything is well, now?" She leaned against the doorframe, her floppy ears perking up.

"Yes, thanks for… being here." Sans' blush persisted, and you were immensely curious about what sort of conversation had taken place while you were out.

"Of course, it is no trouble. I am glad you came to me, but… will you still be staying for dinner?" Toriel asked, but she had a narrow-eyed expression that said she was going to convince you to stay, no matter what. Sans nudged you questioningly, and you gave your approval.

"Sure, Tori. After everything you've done for us, eating with you is the _yeast_ we could do." Sans winked, and Toriel laughed so hard that she bleated. Frisk thumped their head against your legs, groaning. But, when Sans peered over at them, they were smiling.

With the tension thoroughly broken, Toriel bustled back into the kitchen, politely asking Frisk to set the table. They hopped to it without complaint, leaving you and Sans alone on the couch. Sans grabbed the remote, turning the volume way down on the TV so that it was reduced to background noise.

 _So, do we need to talk about this?_ He asked, sounding far more serious than usual. You shot back,

 _I dunno, do we need to talk about every time_ you've _checked out on_ me _? Because that happens more often than the other way around._ It irked you that he thought it was normal for him to have a mental breakdown, but the moment you took a bit of a break from reality it was suddenly a problem. It was like he held himself at a lower standard than you. Sans shook his head.

 _I know. I'm not trying to pick a fight here, kid._ He waited for a moment as you simmered down, losing your defensive steam. _For me, it's… uh… something that's always been a problem, even before Orion. But, unless there's something I don't know… this sort of thing isn't normal for you._ He frowned, scratching the top of his skull. _I just don't want you to pick up my bad habits, y'know?_

That gave you pause. You really hadn't been expecting Sans to reveal that he had… whatever that was. The word "dissociation" came to mind from a distant psych class that you'd been forced to take freshman year, but you didn't remember much else about it. How had you never known this about Sans? And, more immediately concerning, was it possible for you to "catch" it? It was ridiculous to think anyone could contract a mental illness from another person under normal circumstances, but whatever the two of you had going on was not normal. You were two souls sharing one mind, and no one knew what kind of consequences that might come with.

 _It's not a 'mental illness.'_ Now Sans was on the defensive, scoffing at you and squirming a little in his seat. _It's just… sometimes I zone out when I'm stressed. And I… feel like I'm not really there._ He grunted, clearly uncomfortable talking about it. _Whatever. I'm only telling you this because I don't want it to start happening to you, too._ You couldn't stop yourself from feeling a twinge of pity for Sans, which irritated him. _Shut up._

 _I didn't say anything._

 _You were going to._ Sans' wings twitched, causing the fabric of the couch to rustle.

 _Okay, well… how about, if either of us starts to feel the other slipping into that state, we just try to pull them back. Maybe try to get to a quiet place, or something. That seemed to work with you before, when we were at Gerson's shop._ Sans mulled that over and grimaced.

 _Yeah, easier said than done… you were out like a light last time. Wasn't anything I coulda done to bring you back._ You didn't have an answer to that, and were saved from having to respond by a sing-song voice calling you to dinner. You stood up and made your way to the dining area, where Frisk was already sitting at a chair and kicking their legs back and forth. You got so far as to sit down and lay a napkin on your lap before you became aware that you had no idea what you were doing. It seemed you and Sans had swapped spots without either of you realizing it again, with you taking control and Sans slipping into the passenger's seat. It was a rather disorienting realization.

You must've had a funny look on your face, because Frisk was giggling at you. You wanted to stick out your tongue at them, but were disappointed when you remembered you didn't have a tongue. Instead, you just kept making goofy expressions; an easy task when your face was already asymmetrical, anyway. By the time Toriel came out of the kitchen with some kind of snail casserole, Frisk was doubled over with laughter. You were rather proud of yourself, and Toriel seemed happy with you.

Dinner went by without a hitch. You and Toriel chatted, keeping the topics light. She didn't ask about what had happened to make you go MIA for most of the day, and it made you wonder again what she and Sans had talked about. Whatever it was, Sans wasn't telling. You wondered, too, if Toriel even knew that she was talking to you now, and not Sans. It didn't seem to matter, so you didn't bring it up.

While the adults talked, Frisk picked at their casserole with their nose scrunched up. They didn't like snails, it seemed. You'd never had them before now, but it tasted saltier than you would have expected. The butterscotch-cinnamon pie that Toriel had made for dessert went over better with the kid, who scarfed down a huge slice. You furrowed your brow, a little concerned about Frisk's eating habits. Toriel didn't seem to care that they had almost exclusively eaten pie for dinner; maybe monsters didn't know that humans needed a balanced diet? You thought about bringing it up, but figured it wasn't your place. Besides, Sans pointed out to you that Toriel had taken care of human children before. She probably knew better than you what they should be eating.

After dinner, you helped Toriel clean the dishes while Frisk ran off to get ready for bed. The Queen kept shooting you sideways glances as you dried plates. You were confused, until Sans finally clued you in.

 _Oh, right, I said I'd show her the book once the kid wasn't around._ You rolled your eyes, thinking that would've been nice to know earlier.

"So, um, Toriel…" You began awkwardly, gently setting down the plate you'd been drying in order to reach into your pocket. "This is the book I found. It might take a while, but I could translate it, and… uh…" Toriel wiped her wet hands on a rag and took the old book from you with care, furrowing her brow as she examined the strange language. Truth be told, even though you could transcribe it into English given enough time, you weren't sure what to do with it once it was readable. You had an idea, but you didn't think Toriel was going to like it much.

"And you say that it is some kind of guide to necromancy?" The Queen asked, sounding intrigued. You nodded and clasped your hands together. "This is… quite an extrodinary find, my child. If I may ask, how do you plan to translate it?"

"W-well, it's just a… it's a human code, so it's not too hard." It was only half of the truth, but you didn't think she needed to know about Sans' ability to read wingdings. You took a deep breath and continued, "Actually, I was wondering… once I do translate it, I'll still need someone to learn the magic and use it on my body. I was kind of hoping… that you'd do it?" Toriel balked.

"O-oh! Oh dear, ah, I do not think…" Her eyes darted around, looking anywhere but at you. "Why would you ask this of me, child? Anyone would be just as capable as I of learning this. In fact, you could learn it yourself! No need to translate the book on my account." You shook your head resolutely.

"I don't think so. If necromancy's complicated enough to write a whole book about it, I don't think I stand much of a chance of picking it up, myself." You shot a silent _No offence_ to Sans, who waved you off goodnaturedly. "Toriel… you're the best magic-user I know. You taught Papyrus how to do healing magic with a door separating the two of you, you've been using magic since before the first war, and… I trust you. You've helped me out a lot already, so I understand if this is asking too much. But I'd be honored if you'd do this for me." You plead your case and waited patiently while Toriel mulled it over. She rubbed the spine of the book absentmindedly as she thought.

"Well… I suppose I could try." Your face lit up as she handed the book back to you. You tucked it in your pocket hastily while Toriel wagged a stern finger at you. "I make no promises, however. Learning magic from a book will be unthinkably difficult, and there is a strong chance I will not be able to do it." You nodded eagerly.

"I understand. Thank you!" Impulsively, you stepped forward and threw your arms around her in a quick hug. It felt like things were finally coming together. Alphys was helping you with the soul extraction process, and Toriel was going to help with bringing your body back to life. You had a solid plan that might actually work, and it was exciting. Breathily, the Queen laughed and hugged you back.

"You are welcome, dear!" She patted your back once before pulling away. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I believe Frisk is waiting for me to put them to bed." Toriel gestured over your shoulder, and you turned around to look. Sure enough, there stood Frisk, wearing a cute pair of frog-themed pajamas and looking a combination of confused and cranky.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt bedtime." You apologized to the child, who gave a long-suffering sigh before nodding in forgiveness. "I'll go work on this, then." You spoke to Toriel and poked yourself in the chest, where the hardcover book rested against your ribcage. She dipped her head in acknowledgement.

"And I will see you tomorrow to check on your progress. Frisk is spending the day with King Asgore tomorrow, so if you come by in the morning I will gladly spend the day assisting you." Frisk's expression seemed to brighten at the mention of Asgore, and they signed happily,

 **We're gonna plant a garden with Papyrus!** Toriel smiled at Frisk, though you thought it looked a little strained. Selfishly, you were glad Asgore would be babysitting the child so that they wouldn't get in the way.

"That's nice." You murmured, unsure what else to say. In your mind, you felt Sans laughing about how awkward you were around the kid. You steadfastly ignored him, though you couldn't help your face heating up a little. "See you tomorrow." You told Toriel before heading toward the door.

"Goodnight, Orion!" She called after you, and you waved at her and Frisk before slipping out into the night.

.

.

The cold, September air whistled through the cracks in the Northwest tower, making the guardsman inside shiver despite his three layers of clothing. He was leaning back in his chair, feet propped up on the open window because the damn feds were too cheap to put in glass panes and a heater. There were a lot of things he'd rather be doing on a Wednesday night - namely, sleeping. But here he was, watching over these creatures in their homes as they all cuddled up in their warm beds to get some shut-eye.

Okay, so maybe he was a little bitter. At least he didn't have the nightshift tomorrow, when it was supposed to be really chilly.

For a moment, he let his eyes wander over to the Northeast tower, where he knew Hernandez was supposed to be keeping watch. Unsurprisingly, the guardsman could see the telltale glow of his coworker's phone, probably playing some mindless puzzle game like usual. They didn't even have wifi up here, so it took some real skill to be able to slack off. But, if anyone could've managed it, it was Hernandez.

The guardsman snorted at his own joke, turning his attention back to the houses below. He straightened up immediately as he saw a figure walking up the road. Hastily, he grabbed his binoculars, letting out a curse as he struggled to refocus them. As soon as he got a clear picture, he tracked the progress of the monster as it sauntered along like it owned the place. Even though the creature's back was to him, the guardsman recognized it right away. It was hard to mistake a giant, shambling, skeleton-monstrosity for anything else.

He watched the freaky-ass monster walk up the road in silence until it veered suddenly off of the path and into the trees. The guardsman strained to follow its movement, but quickly lost it in the dense plant life. He watched the border carefully, waiting for the thing to reemerge and cross the line of clear-cut trees so that he could call in the cavalry, but it never happened.

With a frustrated hum, the guardsman leaned back again, his chair creaking as he did so. What the hell was that thing doing, anyway? The other monsters were easy to keep track of; they stuck almost exclusively to the road, which was clearly visible from every tower. He and Hernandez had a good view of the cave entrance, too, and could watch as the same five-or-so monsters walked in and out of the mountain.

But this winged skeleton thing was something else. It had appeared a few days ago, stumbling out of the trees like a newborn foal. The guardsman hadn't been there to see it personally, but everyone who was on duty at the time swore that it'd come out of the forest, not the cave. Which was weird in and of itself, but what was even weirder was how it seemed to disappear in the trees, always in the same spot. Hernandez had a theory that the thing had a secret tunnel that led into the main cave, but the guardsman had told him that was fucking stupid. If the thing had found some kind of secret passageway, why hadn't it taken all of its monster friends and high-tailed it to the surface a long time ago? It didn't make any sense.

The last straw for the guardsman had been when, earlier that very morning, he'd seen the freak carrying something out of the forest. It had covered its load in a white sheet, which could not have looked more suspicious. To top it all, the thing had looked really worse for wear. It'd been sweating and shaking, mumbling to itself under its breath. The guardsman wished he knew how to read lips, but, as it was, he just watched as the thing carried whatever it had under the sheet into the cave, disappearing from view.

Resigned to the fact that he wasn't going to find the freak again, the guardsman set his binoculars down. He tapped his fingers on the windowsill thoughtfully. Technically, the thing hadn't done anything wrong. It hadn't crossed the border, which was really the only thing he was supposed to be watching out for. But it gave him a bad feeling, and he didn't think it was just because it looked like something straight out of a horror film. What had been under that sheet? And why was it always just hanging out in the forest all of the time? The guardsman chewed on his lip for a moment before picking up the receiver of an ancient-looking phone, which he'd been told to use if there was ever something to report.

"Hello, this is Charles Tucker in the Northwest tower… What? No, it's not an emergency… No, no one's crossed the border, I don't think…" There was a pause as Charlie listened to his boss chew him out.

"I understand, sir, but there's a monster here doing some really strange things, and I think the suits are gonna want to hear about it."


	9. Lazarus

Neither you nor Sans slept at all that night. You stayed up from dusk 'til dawn, tirelessly translating "The Book of the Dead." The process ended up being a lot more difficult than you'd anticipated.

After some internal debate, you ended up breaking out your computer to get the job done. You didn't have any paper or pens at the barn, so you would've had to track some down if you wanted to write by hand. Typing it out on your computer was the logical choice, even though both you and Sans were irrationally opposed to it. The little Undertale icon taunted both of you as the laptop booted up, but you couldn't bring yourself to delete the desktop shortcut, either. What if it messed something up? Better to just avoid every file and program that was even remotely related to that game, just to be safe.

Then, after plucking up the courage to open the computer and start transcribing the first chapter, you realized that your laptop was very low on batteries. It didn't have a prayer of lasting more than five minutes. You obviously didn't have any electrical outlets in the abandoned barn, so Sans suggested that you take your charger and relocate to Alphys' lab.

By the time you got down to the True Lab by hopping through a few shortcuts, it was quite late. Alphys must've taken your advice and gone upstairs to sleep, because the place was utterly empty. It was eery; you were used to there always being someone down here. Whether it was Alphys, Papyrus, or the Amalgamates, you'd never been alone in the lab before then.

 _What am I, chopped liver?_ Sans had asked you with a nudge, which had gotten a smile from you. He was right, there was no need to fear being alone in the dark. For better or for worse, you and Sans always had each other to fill the silence.

After plugging your computer into an outlet in the bedroom area and sitting on the floor next to it, you were finally able to get to work. You spent the rest of the night tirelessly translating the book. You and Sans came up with a system that worked quite efficiently; you would remain in control of the hands since you were a much faster typer, and Sans would control the eyes since it made reading the book easier. It had taken a lot of finesse to be able to accomplish that kind of shared control of the body, but, once you'd figured out how to pull it off, it made transcribing the book into English a breeze.

By the time you really got going, you barely even comprehended what you were writing. The book had been mysterious and exciting at first, but it quickly devolved into abstract magic theory that neither you nor Sans had any hope of understanding. After hours of translating, you found yourself in a mindless haze, the trance only broken by the shocked half-scream, half-squeak that Alphys made when she found you sitting on the floor of her lab.

"Oh, sorry! I came down here because I needed an outlet. I would've asked, but you were asleep and I didn't think you'd mind…" You clenched your teeth, mortified that you'd overstepped your bounds. The small lizard-monster put a hand to her chest, her eyes looking from you, to your computer, to the wall that your device was plugged into.

"N-no, it's okay! You just s-startled me, is all!" Once she recovered from the shock, her gaze turned to the book on the floor next to you, a curious expression on her face. You subconsciously pulled the tome closer to your body.

"It's a book about necromancy… I'm translating it for Toriel."

"Oh, t-that's… convenient." Alphys shifted her weight back and forth between her feet. "Um, well, I was just g-going to get to work on the DTEM. Y-you can… ah… k-keep doing whatever you're doing!" She took a hasty step toward the door to your right before you held out your hand, palm forward.

"Wait! I was actually wondering if you might want an assistant? I guess you wouldn't remember, but I have some experience with scientific experiments and I just thought, maybe, you'd like some help?" After all, you needed a break from translating. Now that you'd snapped out of your hypnotic state of shared control, it would take a lot of effort to get back into the groove. You didn't really feel like setting that all up again at the moment.

As soon as Sans realized what you were doing, he tried to shush you to no effect. He groaned as Alphys perked up, her eyes brightening with excitement.

"W-wow, I've never had an assistant! That'd be great, thanks!" You shot her a sweet smile before closing the laptop and hopping up into a standing position, dusting off your robe.

"Lead the way, boss!" You said out loud while, internally, you said to Sans, _You're up, science boy._ Sans made a show of sighing dramatically as he took control from you, but you could tell a part of him was happy about this.

 _You're a sneaky little shit._ Sans followed behind Alphys, half-listening to her ramble about her plans for the DT Extraction Machine.

 _Hey, you said you'd ask her if you could help. I just did it for you. You're welcome._ He rolled his eyes at you and, luckily, Alphys didn't see him.

 _I said "maybe."_ He grumbled, and you didn't dignify it with a response. You knew he wanted to do this, he was just too lazy to take initiative himself. Well, not lazy so much as… unmotivated. Perhaps it was more than a little pushy of you to force him into this, but, if you didn't push him to do anything, he would just wallow away in your shared mind. And that wasn't good for either of you, as you were beginning to realize.

You and Sans spent a good hour just listening to Alphys' plans, Sans only occasionally asking a question here and there. He seemed to understand most, if not all, of what Alphys was saying, while you were completely lost. You didn't understand the magic theory in the necromancy book, you couldn't read wingdings, and now you didn't understand this soul magic that Alphys was proposing… you were beginning to think you weren't going to be any help at all in this endeavor. You couldn't even look at your own body without dissociating, but that thought did give you an idea… you would have to ask Toriel about it later.

Speaking of Toriel, you had to pry Sans away from Alphys' messy blueprints so that the two of you could go meet the Queen like you said you would last night. By the time you arrived at her house, Frisk was already gone, presumably in Asgore's care.

After a cup of coffee and a stern, motherly lecture about how you needed to get more sleep, you and Sans brought Toriel to the lab. You figured it would be safer for Tori to learn this stuff away from the prying eyes of the humans in the guard towers, and why not keep all of the research confined to one location? What you hadn't considered, however, was that Toriel still thought Alphys was fired from her job as the Royal Scientist, so it was a bit of a shock for her when she found the lizard monster still working. But, aside from perhaps being slightly passive-aggressive, Toriel kept her conversations with Alphys professional. After that was settled and Alphys got back to work on the machine, you carefully handed over your computer to Toriel, instructing her not to click on or even look at anything other than the document that held the translated text. Luckily, she didn't seem to know anything about computers, so the odds of her navigating away from the document you had pulled up and finding any of the Undertale files were slim to none.

You feared that, as Toriel made her way through the book, she would ask to see the body. But, fortunately, she suggested that she practice on animals first, since she didn't want to mess with anything important until she'd mastered the craft. Unfortunately, that meant you had to go out and find dead animals for her to practice on, which was a less than glamorous job. Sans was especially put out that he couldn't stay to help Alphys work on the machine, and petulantly refused to help you search for recently-dead critters in the forest.

Since you flatly refused to kill even the ugliest mole for Toriel's experimentation, it took quite a while before you stumbled on a suitable carcass. The sun was at its highest point in the sky by the time you returned to the lab, cradling the body of a rabbit in one giant, skeletal hand. Toriel's expression scrunched up as she looked up from the computer.

"Oh… thank you, Orion. Just put it on the table, please." She gestured to a small, metal table with wheels, which she must've brought into the bedroom from another part of the lab. You felt a brief twinge of regret for asking Toriel to do this; she was clearly uncomfortable and out of her element. But you said nothing as you laid the poor rabbit's body down on the table gently.

"So, how's it going?" You asked nervously. It was true that you didn't understand much of what was in that book, but you gathered that it was pretty morbid stuff. The author talked about death in such a cold, detached way… it was chilling, even if you didn't know anything about the magic behind it.

"Truthfully, child, I do not know if I will be able to do this. It is very dark magic… if I did not keep reminding myself that this may very well save your life, I would not have been able to stomach reading even the first chapter." Toriel rubbed a weary hand over her face, and your metaphorical heart dropped. You really wanted this to work, but even you couldn't spin that statement in an optimistic light.

"Well, I appreciate that you're trying, even if it doesn't work out." Toriel gave you a tired smile.

"Then I will continue pressing onward, and will let you know if I make any breakthroughs."

After that, you let Sans take the reins as he went back to assisting Alphys. She caught him up on the progress she'd made that morning, showing him how she was working on the DTEM so that it would detect the presence of determination instead of extracting it immediately. You let your mind wander, thinking about your own ideas of how you could contribute to this strange project that was quickly becoming a team effort. However, you were swiftly brought back to reality as a shrill buzzing sound interrupted the quiet of the lab.

"Oh! S-sorry, there's someone at the door. I'll b-be right back." Alphys climbed down from the stepladder she'd been using to access a hard-to-reach part of the DTEM before quickly shuffling off to see who was at the door upstairs. Sans didn't follow her, instead wandering over to the bedroom again to check up on Toriel.

 _You should tell her your idea,_ He encouraged you while stepping aside to let you take control, _I heard you thinking about it all day, and I think it'd help._ You felt slightly embarrassed that he'd been listening to you, but proud that he thought you could be of use to this makeshift team.

When you walked into the bedroom, Toriel had her back turned to you. She was standing over the rabbit with her hands outstretched over its body, muttering something under her breath. You watched her silently, not wanting to interrupt. Suddenly, she stopped talking and stood very still, as though waiting for something to happen. When nothing did, she turned back to the laptop, which she had placed on top of one of the beds, with her brow furrowed. It was then that she caught sight of you hovering in the doorway.

"Hello, dear." She sighed, a hint of frustration in her voice.

"Not going well?" You asked, taking a few steps forward to look at the rabbit on the table. Sure enough, it looked just as dead as ever.

"Hmm, well, I know I shouldn't expect to learn such complex magic in only one day, but…" She gestured helplessly to the lifeless creature. "I must admit, my magical ability has always been a source of pride for me, and I cannot even accomplish a supposedly simple exercise, if this book is to be believed. It is humbling, to say the least." You hummed sympathetically.

"Maybe this isn't the best time, but I had an idea I wanted to run by you…" You said, fiddling with the talons of your right hand.

"No, please do! I could do with a break, anyway." The Queen smiled and sat down beside the laptop with her ankles crossed, giving you her full attention.

"Um, well… I was thinking… when we first met, you said that, if I brought my body back using necromancy, I would be at the whim of whoever casted the spell, right?" Toriel nodded. "Well, what if, instead of using just necromancy to keep me alive, we combined it with human medicine? I mean, if you could just bring the body back enough that we could hook it up to life support, maybe we could wean it off of the magic and just keep it alive through human means." Toriel said nothing, but looked thoughtful. "D'you… d'you think that could work?" You asked, hopeful. Tori tapped her foot on the ground.

"I… am not sure, Orion. I know very little about necromancy, but I know even less about human healing methods. It sounds like a good idea, but I am afraid that, if you wanted to put it into practice, you would have to find someone other than me to do it."

"Oh, don't worry, I already have that covered! Before, um, all of this… I used to be in school to be a doctor. Well… ah, I was pre-med before I switched majors…" You deflated a little, before perking back up, "But I'm sure I can figure something out!" Toriel smiled at your enthusiasm.

"Perhaps I could assist you with my healing magic, if it would be useful. There are limits to what magic can accomplish, however." You nodded, your mind whirling with possibilities. What _were_ the limits to healing magic? And what could magic and human medicine accomplish together? You wanted to discuss it with Toriel, but were interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps and a familiar voice.

"Wowie, these lights are so bright! Oh, what is that used for? And why do you have computer thingies on the walls? Hey, Orion! Queen Toriel!" Papyrus emerged from the hallway that led to the elevator, his face lighting up upon catching sight of you and Tori. He bounded past a nervous-looking Alphys, who had been leading a group of three into the lab. The other two were Asgore and Frisk, the kid looking comically small as they were held in Asgore's huge arms. Frisk squirmed until Asgore let them down, quickly running to catch up to Papyrus, who had come to a screeching halt upon catching sight of the metal cart.

You followed his gaze to the dead rabbit, dread settling in your bones. You sidestepped to block Papyrus and Frisk's view of the animal, but the damage was already done.

"Orion, what's that? Is that monster hurt?" Papyrus gasped and tried to move around you. "Oh! Don't worry, I can help! I can heal-"

"Paps, it's not a monster, and you can't help." You said, perhaps a little too harshly, because Papyrus' jaw snapped shut. He looked up at you with a confused, wounded expression that made your soul ache. Before Papyrus could ask, Frisk spoke quietly,

"It's a dead bunny, right?" You were startled, not only by the cold, matter-of-fact way the child had said it, but by the fact that they had spoken at all. You'd only heard Frisk's voice once or twice, depending on if you counted them speaking to you in your dream state. When you looked at them, you thought you saw something strange in their eyes. It was undefinable, but it sent a chill down your spine. You stared at Frisk, who stared back at you. Before you could even think of saying anything, Toriel broke the silence.

"Why did you bring them down here? This is no place for children!" The Queen snapped. You thought she was talking to Alphys, until you pried your eyes away from Frisk to see that she was looking at Asgore. He looked abashed.

"They wanted to see you… you were not at home, but Papyrus thought Alphys might know where you were. I am sorry, I did not know you were… busy." He looked up from the floor to glance at you. You were still blocking the cart from view, as it was easily obscured by your large figure. Alphys stepped forward, visibly shaking.

"I-I'm s-s-sorry, Y-Your Majesty… it w-was my f-fault, I… I didn't think…" She stammered, and you pitied her. Before Toriel had a chance to lay into her, too, you spoke up,

"It's okay, Alphys... Asogre. Frisk and Papyrus should know what's going on, too. Especially Paps, since it involves his brother." Toriel crossed her arms, but said nothing. You got down on one knee, which made you shorter than Papyrus. It felt much more natural. "Remember when we first met a few days ago? I said I was gonna get my body back, and that's what we're working on doing right now."

 **Why?** Frisk interrupted with a sign. You'd been avoiding looking at them, but it seemed like whatever weird feeling you'd gotten from them earlier was gone now. They seemed normal again. **What's wrong with just being Orion?** Huh. No one had ever asked you that before, and it took a moment to come up with an answer.

"It's… it just doesn't feel right. We want to be ourselves again, in our own bodies. We both had lives before this that we want to get back to." That assertion left an uncomfortable, nagging feeling in the back of your mind, but you ignored it for now. "Toriel is helping me with some… complicated magic to bring my human body back to life. But she has to practice on other things first."

"What sort of things?" Papyrus asked quietly. Sans frantically urged you to lie.

 _Just make something up. Don't tell him you're using dead animals… he doesn't understand death, it'll upset him. Just lie!_ But you pressed on as though he hadn't said anything.

"On the surface, we have all kinds of little animals. They're not like monsters or humans; they don't have thoughts or magic or souls. So we're practicing on animals that have already died." Frisk nodded, as though this made perfect sense to them. Papyrus' gaze crept up over your shoulder, coming to rest on the rabbit's body behind you. Sans was pissed that you hadn't listened to him, and both of you waited with bated breath for his brother's reaction. You were both shocked when his face lit up.

"I see! So you are using a _different_ kind of healing magic to help that little creature!" He balled his gloved hands into excited fists, his expression practically glowing, "That is so noble of you! But it seems as though you have yet to succeed… fear not! I, the Great Papyrus, will help you in this endeavor! That bunny will be hopping around again in no time!"

"Paps, that's…" Your shoulders slumped, "Yeah, okay. Why don't you get Toriel to show you how you can help? She's the expert, after all." Papyrus turned to Toriel.

"Of course! The Queen and I are both very great at magic, I am sure we can solve this puzzle together!" Toriel gave you a reproachful look before sighing in resignation.

"Come, Papyrus, I will show you what we know so far…" With that, the tension in the room broke. Papyrus ran off to join Toriel by the computer. Alphys and Asgore, who'd been hovering in the doorway, took a few more steps into the spacious bedroom.

"U-um, I'm going to g-get back to w-work!" Alphys stuttered before hurrying past you, presumably going to pick up where she left off on the DTEM. You thought about joining her, but Asgore was looking quite lost standing in the middle of the room with nothing to do, so you took pity on him and started up a conversation.

"Actually, it's pretty convenient that you came here when you did." You said with a good-natured grin, sitting on a nearby bed. The springs creaked as you lowered your weight onto them. "Toriel and I were talking about using some human medicine to help bring the body back, so maybe we won't have to rely so much on this necromancy business." Asgore looked intrigued.

"Oh? Do you think that would work? From what I recall, humans were not always the best healers… no offense." You chuckled. You didn't know exactly how long ago the monsters were sealed underground, but presumably it was before modern medicine came about.

"Trust me, we've come a long way since the Dark Ages!" Unfortunately, your joke seemed to sail over Asgore's head. Oh well. They couldn't all be winners. "I don't know if it'll work, but it can't hurt to try. But, uh… I'm gonna need some supplies from the humans before I can try anything. D'you think you could ask for them for me?" You clenched your teeth, feeling bad for asking more from Asgore when you'd already agreed not to bother him about this anymore. But then again, he _had_ offered to put in supply requests for you… though you didn't think this was exactly what he'd had in mind when he made the offer. Thankfully, he seemed amiable to the idea.

"Of course! It would be best if you wrote a list for me… I am afraid my memory is not as sharp as it once was." He smiled warmly at you.

"Sure, give me a minute!" You sprang up from your seat and began the hunt for a pad of paper and a pen. Once you found that, it took several minutes to think of a suitable list. You weren't exactly sure what you would need or the precise names of the machines involved in life support, but you figured you could always ask again if you ended up forgetting something. You knew you'd like to have a defibrillator and at least eight units of O neg for sure, and you threw a few other items on the list as well. Things like an IV line, a respirator, and small items that one might find in a first aid kit. Once you were satisfied with the initial list, you handed it off to Asgore.

"...Blood?" He asked with a frown, sounding concerned. "I may be mistaken, but don't humans need this to survive? Where would you get such a thing?"

"Oh, well, yeah, that's why I need it. My body… kind of doesn't have any in it anymore. People can survive if you take just a little blood from them at a time, so human doctors always have some donated blood on hand just in case. I won't be hurting anyone if I take some, I promise." Asgore looked reassured by this, and his expression perked up.

"So it is like how monsters give a bit of their own magic when they heal someone, is it not?" You thought for a moment, perplexed.

"Um, I suppose so?" Asgore did not seemed deterred by your noncommittal answer, and started asking you more about human medicine. You were in the middle of an oversimplified explanation of blood types when Toriel interrupted you in a loud, worried tone,

"Where is Frisk?" You looked around and, sure enough, they were nowhere to be seen. Your fingers twitched nervously.

"Maybe they're with Alphys? I'll go check." You quickly slipped out of the room just in time to miss whatever it was Toriel said to Asgore. You only heard her muffled voice down the hall, but her tone was unmistakably agitated. Brow furrowed, you took long, quick strides down to the big room that housed the DTEM.

When you got there, Alphys was on a ladder with a welder in her hands. She had her protective visor up as she scrutinized a weld she had made. As soon as she saw you, her eyes widened in surprise.

"Orion? W-what's wrong?" You wasted no time.

"Is Frisk with you?" But, even without Alphys' headshake, you could see that the kid wasn't there. Besides, Alphys wouldn't have been welding if Frisk had been in the room. Too dangerous.

"I h-haven't s-seen them… weren't they w-with you?" You growled and turned around, too anxious to answer. You jogged back to the room, not caring that your head bumped on the ceiling a few times on the way.

"They're not with her." You informed the crowd. Immediately, Toriel began to ream Asgore a new one.

"It was your job to watch them!" She spoke in a louder, shriller tone than you'd ever heard coming from her. It was jarring. "The _one_ day I leave them with you-"

"Hey, calm down." You ordered, wincing as Toriel's wrathful gaze turned to you. You knew her anger came from a place of caring, but it wasn't going to help anyone at the moment. "We'll spread out and look for them. They can't have gotten far."

"Yes, exactly!" Papyrus jumped on the opportunity to defuse the situation. "Do not worry, Queen Toriel! I will search high and low for the tiny human!" With that, Papyrus set off, running deeper into the lab despite not knowing his way around. You had a feeling you'd have to go looking for him later, too.

"Asgore, if you could search between here and the surface, I'll go the other direction. One of us'll have to run into them at some point. Toriel… could you stay here, please? In case they come back." You realized after the words were out of your mouth that you'd just bossed around the King and Queen of monsters, but they were both too upset with the situation to notice. They simply nodded and went their separate ways, Toriel folding her arms crossly as Asgore turned his back on her. You were about to hand the reins over to Sans so that the two of you could ride a shortcut out of there, but you hesitated.

"All due respect, Toriel, but you might not want to be so hard on Asgore. He's got a lot on his plate." You didn't stick around to hear Toriel's response. Before you knew it, you and Sans had switched places seamlessly, and the two of you were standing somewhere in Snowdin forest.

 _I thought we were going backwards through Waterfall?_ You asked, and Sans grunted as he began trudging through the snow. The process was made much easier due to your long, powerful legs.

 _I think it's more likely that they're here. There's not much in Waterfall, especially now that Undyne doesn't live there, and they wouldn't walk all the way to Snowdin when they could take the Riverperson._ He made a good point, so you shut up as he took another shortcut that was nestled between two trees. It dropped you right in front of Sans' old house, which gave you both a pang of nostalgia. You'd already been there once before to see the basement, but you wondered how different the inside was now compared to the last time either of you had seen it. You didn't have time to check it out right then.

A commotion coming from the center of the town drew Sans' attention. The Dog Guard was barking like crazy, obviously excited about something. Sans marched over there and, sure enough, his height advantage allowed him to see Frisk at the center of the dogs, giggling as they were mauled by wet puppy kisses.

"Frisk." Sans' voice rumbled. Though it was quiet, it popped the joyful atmosphere like a balloon. It was an impressive skill, and you were kind of jealous. "What're you doing here?" The dogs became defensive, particularly Dogamy and Dogaressa, who shifted their axes to block Frisk from view. It was understandable… your robed, skeletal figure was intimidating, and Sans was a stranger to all of his former friends in Snowdin.

"Hey! Back off, pal!"

"You have a weird smell." The couple spoke one after another, their noses sniffing the air like crazy. You supposed it made sense; you probably didn't smell like a human, or a monster. A small hand appeared and tugged on Dogamy's tail.

 **It's okay, they're my friend!** Frisk signed at the dogs urgently. They gave you one last suspicious glare before backing away.

"If you're the weird puppy's friend, then I guess you're alright."

"Even if you smell bad." Sans gave a cursory nod to the dogs before grabbing Frisk by the arm.

"'Scuse us." He grunted, pulling the kid aside so they wouldn't be overheard. The dogs all stared after you, confused.

 **I'm sorry,** Frisk signed as soon as you were alone, **I just wanted to play with the puppies…** Sans sighed and let go of Frisk, pulling his hood down to expose his skull.

"You coulda done that anytime, kid. What's the real reason?" They fidgeted and bit their lip.

 **I… didn't wanna be in the lab anymore. I don't like the dead things…** They looked down, their face turning red with shame. Sans kneeled down to their level, like you'd done earlier.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

 **Because you would've been mad!** They signed with a scowl, as though this was obvious. It wasn't, though. Neither you nor Sans knew what they were talking about.

"I wouldn't have been mad, kid. Why didja think that?" Frisk kicked the snow under their feet, still refusing to look at you and Sans.

 **It… it makes Chara excited.** Sans flinched at the mere name. Right… Sans hadn't been mentally present when you'd had that short conversation with Frisk about Chara. He didn't know that the dead child was still there in Frisk's mind.

 _That would've been nice to know!_ He said, his inner voice a little panicky. Frisk continued on, oblivious to your turmoil.

 **They used to kill animals sometimes, before they fell down here. The dead bunny reminded them of that, and they got excited.** Frisk looked gloomy, as though this was their fault somehow. That injustice, combined with a silent apology from you, was what brought Sans back to the present.

"Okay, okay… I wish you woulda just told me that instead of running off, but I'm not mad at you." Sans ruffled Frisk's hair comfortingly, and they gave him a weak smile. "If you ever feel like you're losing control to that demon, just tell me. Okay?" Frisk grabbed his hand, pulling it off of their head.

 **Okay. But...** They frowned, still holding Sans' hand in two of their own. **Could you maybe not call them a demon? Because they're not.** Frisk looked very adamant about that, so Sans relented.

"Sure, half-pint." The kid giggled at the nickname, and again, you felt a little jealous of Sans. He was so good with Frisk; you never could've had this conversation with them on your own.

 _See? You need me for more than just killing spiders._ Sans joked, and your mood brightened.

 _I guess so. You've earned your keep._ Sans chuckled out loud, but Frisk didn't ask what he was laughing about. Instead, they ushered him to his feet, keeping a tight hold on his hand as they wordlessly led him back over to the dogs.

"Aw, kid, we should probably get back to the lab… everyone's pretty worried about you." They held up one finger, still tugging you closer to the Dog Guard. As Sans approached, a familiar face popped up from the crowd of fur. Immediately, you snatched back control, a big smile spreading on your face.

"Endogeny!" You called, and the dog conglomeration let out a sound resembling a bark. You patted your knees, and Endogeny galloped toward you, barrelling into you with so much force that you would've went flying if you'd still been human. The dripping mass of dog slobbered on you from its main orifice, and you laughed with glee. They remembered you… there was no other explanation! The dog whined, vibrating intensely and skittering all over you.

"Huh. Do you know our parents? 'Cause they don't usually act like that to strangers." Doggo asked you, a shifty look on his face. You rubbed Endogeny's head fondly, and Lesser Dog glared at you with a jealous, longing expression.

"Yeah, we go way back! We've got a lot in common." You'd meant it as a joke, but it was actually kind of true. You were basically a glorified Amalgamate, after all.

"See, Dogamy? Our parents would be fine living on the surface… they've already got a friend up there!" Dogaressa said, as though continuing an ongoing argument. You thought it was awfully presumptuous of her to assume you lived with everyone else on the surface, but you didn't correct her. Honestly, you thought it would be good if more monsters moved to the empty houses in the camp, and you didn't want to discourage that.

Lesser Dog and Greater Dog lit up at the mention of the surface, but Dogamy and Doggo didn't look convinced. Doggo seemed especially nervous about the idea.

"I-I dunno. It's nice here, where I already know where everything is. Why do we gotta move?"

"I wouldn't worry about finding things… there's not much on the surface right now, anyway." You piped up, shifting your weight back and forth so that Doggo could see you. "And there's people there who would love to help you out, I bet. Like… Papyrus?" You assumed the dogs knew Paps, and, sure enough, Doggo's ears perked up at the mention of his name.

"I like him, he moves around a lot." Doggo nodded approvingly. Dogamy relented with a sigh.

"Well if everyone else is going…" Lesser Dog and Greater Dog barked happily and ran circles around each other. Endogeny leaned heavily against your leg. Frisk clapped and signed something that you missed.

"I hope so, weird puppy!" Dogamy reached toward Frisk and hesitantly pet the kid's head. Sans found it hilarious that a dog was petting a human, and you wondered if Frisk had taught them to do that, because they looked rather pleased with themself.

"We'll have to talk to Asgore about it." Dogaressa said, seeming reserved but happy.

"Well, kid," You turned to Frisk as the dogs continued celebrating, "We should really get going." Frisk nodded resolutely, and you gave Endogeny one last pat. The dog Amalgamation gurgled and whined as you walked away from it and, with a look over its shoulder at its family, began to skitter along after you.

"Uhh…" You looked around, wondering if you were allowed to take Endogeny with you to the lab or if you should shoo it back to its family. Dogaressa caught sight of your conflicted expression and waved you on. You assumed that meant she was giving you permission. "Alright, pup. I guess you can come with us if you want." Frisk grinned and gave the dog a hearty pat. Sans helped you open a couple shortcuts and, before too long, you were all back at the lab.

You'd worried that your new dog companion would be upset to find themselves back at the lab where they had been imprisoned, but they didn't seem much to care. You strolled into the big bedroom, Frisk and Endogeny following behind you. Before you even entered, you called out,

"Don't worry, guys, I found-" You cut yourself off abruptly. At your feet was a living, breathing rabbit, looking up at you with its nose twitching in curiosity. You stared at it for a long moment before slowly raising your head. Across the room stood Papyrus, his hand outstretched toward the undead animal and his eyes glowing bright orange.


	10. Born Under a Bad Sign

(A/N: Someone surprised me with some very lovely fanart of Orion, which I am using as the cover image for this fic! Please go visit the artist "ariaofelements" on Tumbr and give her some love! To find the fanart she made, search the tag "cyb" on her blog. This site won't let me link to outside sources, otherwise I'd link you to it :/ )

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The room erupted into chaos. As soon as Endogeny caught sight of the rabbit, they lunged for it, their gooey flesh vibrating with excitement. The poor, undead bunny made a run for it. It probably would've had no problem escaping the clumsy, overenthusiastic dog amalgamation, had it been a normal rabbit. But there was something wrong with one of its hind legs. It was bent at a weird, unnatural angle, causing the animal to hobble and jerk around sporadically. As it moved, you could see where there was a huge gash in its flank, from where some predator had gotten ahold of it and dealt a killing blow. There was definitely something deeply disturbing about how it ignored its own fatal injuries.

As Endogeny chased the rabbit with a gurgly bark, Frisk let out a strangled sound and ran after the dog. There was no way Endogeny could've done the dead rabbit any further harm, but Frisk seemed upset about the possibility nonetheless. They grabbed onto of the scruff of the Amalgamate's neck and dug their heels in. It barely slowed the dog down, as they just dragged the kid across the linoleum floor.

Meanwhile, you and Papyrus simply stared at each other. In all his life, in all the timelines he'd lived through, Sans had never seen Papyrus' eyes glow like that before. They certainly were glowing now, though, and casting an orange sheen upon the entire room. The skeleton, for his part, was frozen in place, looking for all the world like a guilty kid who got caught elbow-deep in the cookie jar.

The spell was broken, literally and figuratively, when Endogeny clipped Papyrus' leg while in pursuit of the rabbit. Paps stumbled back and caught himself on the metal table, which made a loud _BANG!_ as his hand slammed onto it. In all the ruckus, his eyes quickly flashed back to normal.

"Oh, shoot!" The mutilated rabbit took a nosedive, dropping dead in mid-hop. Endogeny and Frisk screeched to a halt, the dog pawing at the dead animal and managing to look confused despite their lack of a face. Frisk huffed and narrowed their eyes at Endogeny crossly.

"What is going- oh! My child!" Toriel appeared in the doorway opposite of the one you were standing in, her attention immediately drawn to Frisk. She scooped up the kid and hugged them tight. Toriel's voice sounded muffled to you as she reprimanded her child, and you were only half-aware of your vision darkening as you zoned out.

 _What the hell?_

 _I don't know._

 _WHAT THE HELL?_ You winced. Sans never raised his voice out loud, but he sure didn't seem to object to it in the semi-privacy of your shared mind. _How did this happen? We shouldn't have let this happen. It's our fault, it's…_ Your ears rang, loud and high pitched, drowning out whatever Sans was trying to say. You felt him slipping, you felt _yourself_ slipping, and you didn't even know why. Why was this bad, again? All you knew was Sans was giving off a deep, all-encompassing mix of foreboding and despair, so something must've been horribly wrong.

"Orion?" Someone called out to you. A familiar voice; a good voice. You recognized your chosen name, and felt someone touching your arm. Huh, that was weird… you couldn't remember anyone reaching out to you.

"Queen Toriel! I… um… just remembered! I need to show Orion something. Yes! We will be back in a jiffy!" You felt yourself being turned and pulled along. Obediently, you followed the insistent force. You came back to your senses slowly as you were dragged down the hallway by Papyrus, past the elevator door and into the room with the sinks and examination tables. With a purpose, Paps grabbed both of your arms, spun you around, and gently pressed you down to sit on one of the tables. You followed his lead, glad that Alphys seemed to have cleaned off whatever sticky substance had previously coated the metal tables.

"Something is wrong… human? Are you okay? Are you ill?" Papyrus asked, his head tilted slightly to the side as he continued to hold onto your upper arms. You marveled, briefly, at how he was able to tell it was you in control and not Sans. You hadn't even spoken to him yet… how could he possibly know?

"I'm good, I think. Sans is…" You probed gently with your mind, finding Sans still curled up in his own world. "... I guess he still needs a moment." With your left hand, you rubbed the cloth of your robe between your fingers. You took a deep, shaky breath. "Thanks for bringing us somewhere quiet… it helps, I think." It surprised you that Papyrus always just seemed to know what to do with you. You and Sans had talked just yesterday about how you needed to get each other to a quiet place whenever one of you was beginning to feel overwhelmed, and now here was Papyrus, doing it for you. You wondered if that was just how he and his brother had always been with each other; instinctively sensing exactly what the other needed. If so, then that was something that had never died between timelines, even in this world where Papyrus didn't remember Sans. You thought that realization should've roused the older brother, but Sans remained locked in his own bubble.

"Of course! The Great Papyrus is the best at helping! NYEH HEH HEH!" His voice grew steadily louder, until he realized his own volume and looked abashed. "I mean, nyeh heh… heh." He whispered, and you snorted with poorly-suppressed laughter.

You and Papyrus waited together for a long moment, the only sound being that of a faucet sluggishly leaking drops of water every now and then. Papyrus let go of you only to hop up on the table beside you. Your shoulders would've been touching, had it not been for the glaring height difference. As it was, Papyrus' armoured shoulder brushed against your arm, which felt just as nice.

"Um…" Your companion broke the silence, his boney fingers tapping on the metal table restlessly. "Did I do something wrong?" It took you a moment to even remember why you were in this situation to begin with. When you did, you grimaced, then shook your head.

"No. We were just… surprised. Toriel's been trying all day to get that rabbit to move, and you just come in and do it on the first shot." That wasn't exactly true. _You_ may have been merely startled, but, now that you were in a calmer place, you were beginning to be able to separate your own emotions from Sans'. And Sans was not happy that Papyrus had gotten dragged into this mess.

"I told you I could do it, silly human! Next time, you should believe me when I say I am great at healing!" You sighed and looked down at your hands, which were resting in your lap. You flexed the talons of your right hand to distract yourself.

"That's not… normal healing, Papyrus. How much did you read from the computer?" Papyrus wiggled in his seat, as though he knew he'd done something wrong.

"Not a lot, just the part Queen Toriel was on. She called me back and wanted me to wait there for Frisk to arrive while she and Doctor Alphys searched the lab. I thought I could practice while she was gone… was that bad? Is my brother upset with me?" He asked imploringly, and you quickly shook your head and forced yourself to look up at him.

"No, no! He's just worried about you. Monsters have… um, well… that magic is… kind of dangerous. Bringing rabbits back to life is fine, but there's the potential for monsters to do some... bad things... with that kind of magic." You stumbled over your words, trying to put it in terms that Papyrus would understand. Maybe Sans was right… maybe it had been wrong of you to tell Papyrus the truth about what Toriel was trying to do with that dead animal. Sans didn't want his little brother near this, and you should've respected that.

 _You hear that, bonehead? I'm saying I'm sorry. You should wake up and accept my apology before I take it back._ You nudged him. He quivered slightly, but otherwise didn't react.

"Human?" You grunted and turned your attention back to Papyrus, disheartened by your failed attempt to wake Sans. "Could I talk to my brother, please?" After a moment of hesitation, you nodded. You figured Sans was too far gone to listen to you, but maybe he'd listen to his brother. You made a great effort to silence your own thoughts as Papyrus cleared his throat and began to speak,

"Brother! I understand you are concerned for my wellbeing, but fear not! I, The Great Papyrus, have total control over the situation! I promise I will never do any bad things with my new healing powers, so there's no need to worry about that." You thought you felt Sans twitch, but you said nothing and let Papyrus keep talking. "And besides, _I_ am the one who should be more worried about _you_! After all, you are the one who is in this predicament! And I… I want to help you. And the human, too! But I think it would be nice if both of you were separated so that we could do things together… just you and I. You know, like… brother things?" Papyrus scratched the back of his skull. "I don't actually know what brothers do together, but I am sure I will think of something! Or you can just tell me what we used to do together, and we can do that! I know you are probably sad that I don't remember all of the cool things we used to do, but that just means we'll have to do it all over again! Right?" Papyrus looked up at you hopefully. You were about to shake your head when you felt Sans stirring. He grappled for control, and you let him have it readily.

"We… um." He cleared his throat and rubbed his jaw. "We used to build snowmen. Not much else to do when you're a guard in Snowdin Forest." Papyrus perked up, jumping off of the table as he made a wild, flourishing motion with his hands.

"Then we will make new snowmen! The best snowmen! Oh, I've always wanted a sculpture in the shape of my smile… but if no one will make it for me, I will just have to build it myself! Out of snow!" He rambled happily, grabbing Sans' hand and pulling him to his feet. Sans followed his brother's lead, a lazy grin on his face. You were just glad Papyrus had been able to pull him out of his funk. "But first, we must get the human back into their rightful body! I should tell Toriel about how I healed the rabbit… come, brother!"

In fact, once Papyrus had managed to tug Sans back into the bedroom, it turned out that Frisk had already told Toriel and Alphys about Papyrus' new trick. He did a demonstration for them, anyway, putting on a show as he pulled off his gloves and ran his hands over the rabbit. Sans watched from a distance as it jumped back to life, his arms crossed over his chest.

 _Don't get me wrong, I'm still not happy about this._ Sans said to you, _But I guess the damage is already done._ He tracked the rabbit with his eyes as Papyrus made it do tricks for Frisk. The skeleton was careful to keep the rabbit's injured side facing away from his audience. From the right angle, the animal looked almost normal. It also helped that Endogeny had been relegated to a different room, so the creature didn't have to run for its life.

 _It is a little weird._ You admitted, _I wouldn't expect Papyrus, of all people, to be a natural at black magic. But I guess if anyone's going to use it for good, it's him._ Both of you fell into silence, watching the spectacle in front of you. You were unnerved by the zombie bunny, to put it mildly. You were willing to bet that, had you been the one in control, you would have left the room by now. Oddly, the monsters seemed unfazed. Maybe it was because monsters didn't leave behind bodies when they died, but Papyrus and Alphys were surprisingly blasé about the fact that a corpse was hopping around the room. Perhaps they didn't have that natural repulsion toward dead things, like humans did. However, Toriel looked at least slightly disturbed; she wrinkled her nose and inched away whenever Papyrus brought the rabbit near her.

Silently, you urged Sans to check on Frisk. His gaze turned to the kid obediently, and it looked like they were doing alright. They were half-hidden behind Toriel's legs, but they were smiling as Papyrus directed the rabbit to do silly things at their request. You didn't want to push it, though, and Sans agreed.

"I hate to break up the party, but Asgore's probably still lookin' for the kid. We should go find him and tell him you're okay… dontcha think, half-pint?" Sans winked, and Frisk nodded eagerly as they slipped out from behind their mother and skipped toward you.

"Queen Toriel, you should try this! I bet you can still learn how to do it, if you put your mind to it! Here, let me show you…" Papyrus' voice began to fade into the distance as Sans led Frisk down the hallway. Sans looked over his shoulder at the kid, who had to jog to keep up with his long strides.

"Stick close, I know a shortcut." Sans frowned, then amended, "Well, several shortcuts, probably. I don't know exactly where Asgore is… we might have to search around for a while. It'll be like hide n' seek." Frisk clapped their hands together, excited at the prospect of playing a familiar game. Sans chuckled and opened the first wormhole, letting it swallow up himself and the kid soundlessly.

It took quite a while, since Frisk insisted on stopping and greeting everyone they saw along the way, but they eventually found Asgore and told him that the search was off. He took Frisk off of Sans' hands, bringing them back to the camp and safely away from any more dead bodies. You and Sans, however, returned back to Alphys' place, which was quickly becoming more like a morgue than a lab. Once you rejoined the others, you and Alphys went off to work on the machine while Papyrus and Toriel continued practicing their magic.

In fact, this pattern continued for days. You fell into an easy routine; wake up, take a couple shortcuts to the lab, let Sans take the reins so he could help Alphys, go to Toriel's house for dinner, and finally retreat back to the barn to catch some sleep. If you were being honest, it got old pretty quick for you. Much of your time was spent in the backseat, idly watching as Alphys and Sans discussed concepts that were well beyond your realm of understanding. You were glad that Sans seemed to be slowly warming up to his role as Alphys' assistant; over the course of just a few days, he started contributing more and arguing good-naturedly with Alphys over questions of quantum physics. You enjoyed listening to Sans get excited about theories and breakthroughs, and were genuinely happy for him whenever he and Alphys solved a problem with the machine. But any actual involvement on your part would've been more of a hassle than a help, so you had to force yourself to stay out of the way. It was maddening for someone like you, who got antsy whenever your mind wasn't occupied.

It wasn't all bad, though. Every now and then, there'd be slight variations in the routine. For example, a couple days after Papyrus' breakthrough with the rabbit, the dogs moved into the house next to Asgore's, filling in the gap between the King and the other monsters living on the surface. The five dogs (plus Endogeny, though you weren't sure how many dogs they counted as) had a surprising amount of stuff that needed moving. And, since you were large enough to carry anything they owned and had the ability to teleport, you volunteered to move their things for them. The exercise did you good, and you even managed to open a shortcut without any help from Sans. Giddy with happiness, you'd excitedly told anyone who'd listen. Unfortunately, nobody other than Sans understood what the big deal was.

 _Do you think I'll still be able to do it when I'm back in my own body? God, that'd be sweet!_ You exclaimed to your mind-partner, who was amused by your elation.

 _I dunno… maybe. Some humans used to be able to do magic, way back when, so it's not impossible._ Though he was outwardly encouraging, you felt a touch of concern in the back of Sans' mind. But you were too hyped to focus on that, and, by the time you calmed down, you completely forgot about it.

Speaking of the dogs, there was one in particular that had taken to following you around. More often than not, Endogeny was by your side, particularly when you were the one controlling the body. You didn't understand their fascination with you, especially since they shouldn't have been able to remember you from the previous timeline. Maybe it was just because they thought you were another Amalgamate. Even if the sudden attachment was because of something arbitrary, it gave you a warm feeling, anyway. You allowed Endogeny to follow you everywhere; sometimes, you even took them back to the barn with you overnight, much to Sans' annoyance. He particularly didn't like having the dog in the lab with him, since he had to watch them constantly to make sure they didn't mess with anything. But Sans inevitably caved to your pleading, claiming that you were giving him "lethal puppy-dog eyes," even though it wasn't physically possible for you to give him any sort of eyes in your current situation.

Another break in the monotony came a couple days after that, when Alphys surprised you and Sans with a new phone. It was bulky, but complete with all sorts of crazy features, including a dimensional box and a button that said "jetpack." Despite the temptation, you decided not to touch that one.

"Y-you can't c-call any humans on it… we d-don't get reception up on the mountain. B-but you can call any of us! It even has t-texting!" Alphys explained as you examined your new device. You would've liked to have hugged her, but the vast height difference would've made it rather awkward. Instead, you thanked her profusely, and spent that night fiddling with the phone. Sans took it from you eventually, and used it to text everyone in your contacts with horrible puns.

Come to think of it, Alphys probably regretted giving you that gift.

Now, about a week after the establishment of your new routine, you were headed over to Asgore's house. It was early in the morning, and the crisp, autumn air would've chilled you if you had any skin. You'd texted Asgore beforehand to make sure it was alright to come over, but you still felt bad for intruding on him so early. But this was important, or so you reminded yourself as you knocked on his door.

"Ah, Orion." Asgore answered your knock, dressed casually in an untucked button-down shirt and khakis. "Please, come in."

"Thanks." You ducked your head and squeezed into the house, your wings scraping the doorframe as you passed through. You didn't feel too bad about that when you were at the King's house, though, since all of his woodwork was already scratched up from where his horns caught on the tops of the doorframes.

"Would you like a cup of tea?" Asgore asked, in his typical fashion.

"Um, no thanks." You declined with a tense smile. "I don't plan on staying long… gotta get back to work, y'know?" Truth was, you didn't think you could stand another cup of tea. You didn't much care for the drink to begin with, so it got old pretty quick.

"Of course. So, what was is it that you wanted to talk about?" You stood in the middle of the living room, where you were the least worried about knocking anything over. You fidgeted a little, and checked to see if Sans was awake yet. He wasn't; it was still pretty early and, aside from grumbling a bit when you'd opened a shortcut to get to the camp, he'd resolutely stayed asleep through the whole walk from the barn. You marveled at his ability to sleep while you took the body for a joyride; his commitment to laziness was truly admirable. He wasn't dreaming about anything… distracting, so you let him be. You didn't really need him for this, anyway.

"Well… I don't mean to bother you, but… it's been a week and I was just wondering… do you know when the supplies I asked for will get here?" After all, Toriel and Papyrus (mainly Papyrus, as Toriel still hadn't managed to resurrect anything, even with the skeleton's excessive encouragement) were about ready to start working on your body, and you wanted to help, too. You didn't know how much you could do with your human medical equipment, but you wanted to try. You couldn't do anything without any of the supplies, though, which you were still lacking.

Asgore's expression fell. He dragged a large hand over his face, suddenly looking much older than usual. Slowly, he sat down on the couch, his body sinking deep into the cushions. You furrowed your brow, worried that you'd upset him by asking.

"I am sorry, Orion. I passed on your list to the humans the very same day that you gave it to me, but I have not received word on when, or if, they will come." The King sighed, and the force of it sounded more like a gust of wind than a breath of air. "The truth is… we are supposed to receive supply drops every week, but they have been very inconsistent in this regard. Sometimes, the supplies come late, or not at all." You frowned, letting the information sink in.

"That's… horrible." You decided crossing your arms and straightening up a bit.

"I did not think it was a problem, at first. After all, we survived underground for millennia. These supplies from the humans, while welcome, were not strictly necessary." He sighed again, quieter this time, before continuing, "But the items we ask for keep coming later and later, or they are not as described, or the price is raised seemingly arbitrarily. I am getting the feeling that the humans do not respect us." The King looked disappointed. Not angry, but just sad. Suddenly, it hit you,

"Wait, you're _paying_ for this stuff? With what? _Gold_?" Asgore looked at you with a quizzical expression.

"Er, yes. The humans were happy to accept our currency as payment." As you grew more and more outraged, your emotional state caused Sans to finally wake up. He was confused and disoriented, but you didn't have time to explain.

"Oh, I bet they were!" You wanted to pace, but there was not enough room, so you ended up just shifting your weight back and forth. "You might not know, but gold is very valuable to humans. How much are you paying them?" Asgore looked surprised to hear this, which was not a good sign.

"Right now, it is a flat rate of sixty gold pieces per week… they told me that this is supposed to cover our rent for living in these houses, as well as the cost of any supplies we ask for. I thought it was a very good deal…" The King trailed off upon seeing the scandalized look on your face.

"Oh my god. How much does a coin weigh? Like, an ounce? And an ounce of gold it worth…" Your face scrunched up, and your pseudo-pacing stilled as you thought about it. "I don't even know, but it's a lot. Way more than you should be paying… and they didn't tell you any of this, did they?" Asgore grimaced and shook his large head. Still, he didn't seem angry, but _you_ were. Shit, no wonder the humans were so willing to build these houses for the monsters - they were making a killing off of them! The government had made it out to be an act of kindness, but really, it was an act of greed.

"You… you've gotta tell them. Tell them you won't keep giving away all of your money!" The King snorted and fixed you with an intense look, which shut you up immediately.

"I cannot do that. We mustn't argue with the humans. In their eyes, we are intruding on their homeland. We are frightening outsiders to them… we are just fortunate they have not attacked us yet. If our gold is the only reason they are keeping us around, then so be it." The way he said it, so calmly, lit a fire in your heart. Sans quietly urged you not to fight with Asgore, so you struggled to tamp down your righteous anger. You crossed your arms tightly and narrowed your eyes.

"It's not fair." You hadn't meant to sound so petulant, but it was true. You couldn't believe that your own kind would be so vile to your friends in the Underground, but at the same time, you probably shouldn't have been surprised. You'd really thought that freeing the monsters would atone for all of the wrong you'd done to them, but now you'd just exposed them to more humans who were just as vicious and needlessly cruel as you'd been. It just… wasn't fair.

 _Hey, don't be like that._ Sans spoke softly in your mind, _You did a good thing. You just had your hopes up too high._ You snorted. His words sounded hollow; he, of all people, knew that you hadn't made up for anything. Maybe Sans was right to be so pessimistic all the time… it sure would've saved you this disappointment.

Meanwhile, Asgore was smiling. That, more than anything, was what brought you back to the present. You tilted your head, fixing him with a questioning look.

"You sound just like Tori." He said, shaking his head wistfully. "She, too, was always wanting to do the just thing, no matter the cost. But sometimes, being just and righteous only causes more suffering in the long run." Asgore chuckled, and it incensed you.

"Is that how you justified killing all those kids?"

You snapped, and immediately regretted it. A heavy silence fell between you and the King. You cringed.

 _Way to go._ Sans deadpanned, throwing up his metaphorical hands in defeat. You took a step back. Asgore's expression was blank, and you couldn't tell if he was mad at you or not.

"I-I'm sorry… I don't know why I said that. We don't have to talk about-"

"No, you are right." Asgore spoke firmly, interrupting you. "It was wrong of me to hurt those humans… I know that now. I was desperate and blinded by grief. Our current situation is not the same as what happened back then." He avoided looking you in the eyes until after he finished speaking, and you found yourself unable to meet his gaze. "Honestly, I do not know how much you know about those circumstances, but if you have any concerns, I encourage you to ask me about them at another time." You were confused - why couldn't you talk about it right now? - until you glanced a flash of movement out the window. Asgore stood up before the visitor even knocked. You pressed yourself against the far wall of the living room so that the King could move past you to get the door.

"Hello, Toriel." Sure enough, Tori stood in the doorway, with Frisk peering around her legs. "...And you, little one." Frisk beamed when Asgore bent down and gently ruffled their hair. The kid spotted you and waved enthusiastically. You raised your hand weakly, still processing what had just happened. "Please, come in." Asgore ushered both Toriel and the kid inside. It was a bit of a tight fit, with the four of you all standing in the small living room.

"I hope we are not interrupting. I am only here because I saw Orion come in some time ago." Toriel spoke briskly. Frisk frowned and tugged on her sleeve. "... And Frisk wanted to visit." She added reluctantly, which seemed to satiate the kid.

"Oh, uh, sorry… I'm usually at the lab by now, huh?" You rubbed the bone of your upper arm through the sleeve of your robe. "Didja need me for something?" Toriel stepped toward you, and you noticed she was holding the necromancy book. You usually kept it down in the lab, because you still hadn't finished translating the last couple chapters. You'd been meaning to get to that.

"Oh, it's no problem, dear." Toriel smiled at you warmly. "Papyrus and I were just flipping through this book here to see how much was left untranslated - we are just about caught up to where you left off - when we found something odd." She opened the back cover of the book, where there was a small slip of paper tucked inside. She pulled it out and handed it to you. You took it in your left hand, handling it with care. The paper looked ancient, and you didn't want to accidentally rip it. "It just fell out from between the pages, and I thought it seemed significant."

The note, like the rest of the book, was written in wingdings. Excitedly, your eyes roved over it. You only read so far as "ENTRY NUMBER FIVE-" before you were interrupted by a loud, booming knock on the door.


	11. The Uncertainty Principle

Everyone jumped at the sudden sound, all four pairs of eyes turning to the window. Whoever had knocked wasn't visible through the living room window, save for the side of their arm. A very human-looking arm.

Without a word, you snatched the necromancy book out of Toriel's hands and hastily stuffed it and the journal entree in your robe's inner pocket. Your eyes roved around as you searched for a place to hide. There was no backdoor, so you couldn't escape. And, in such a tiny house, there were not a lot of places to hide a huge, winged skeleton.

 _Kid, relax. We can take a shortcut._ Oh. Right. Duh. You summoned the shortcuts, looking around for one that led to a safe place. As soon as you found it, you lunged for it.

"Orion, don't-" Too late. Toriel tried to call you back, but you were already through the portal. It didn't take you far; just to the bare backyard of the dogs' house. But it was enough to hide you from the humans, and that was what mattered.

You took a deep, shaky breath. If you'd had a heart, it would've been pounding in your chest. Instead, you felt powerful magic swirling around your soul, ready to be unleashed at a moment's notice. What the hell was that about? Asgore hadn't been expecting a visit from the humans, had he? No, he would've warned you.

 _I can't believe you already forgot about the shortcuts. It's only been… what, five days since you learned how to use them? How quickly you forget._ Sans chortled as he teased you. His jokes helped to calm you down, and the corner of your mouth quirked up into an involuntary grin.

 _Yeah, yeah… whatever._ Your magic decentralized as you relaxed. Sans wasn't worried anymore, so you figured you shouldn't be, either. Feeling emboldened, you crouched down and peered around the corner of the house. You couldn't see anything, aside from some mold on Asgore's siding.

 _So… why'd we run away?_ Sans asked casually. The question gave you pause. You couldn't really explain it, but you just didn't want the humans to see you. Maybe it was stupid, because they've almost definitely seen you from their guard towers by now, anyway. But you didn't want to have to talk to them... not in this form.

 _But we can't avoid them forever._ Sans added, and you rolled your eyes.

 _We don't have to avoid them forever, just until we get our proper bodies back._ You pointed out. _I don't want us to make a name for ourselves as Orion, because Orion isn't going to be around for long._ That wasn't quite it, but it was a logical enough explanation for how you were feeling, so you went with it. Sans knew that wasn't the whole story, though; he always knew. It was awfully hard to lie to each other in this state. But, thankfully, he didn't push you to explain further.

There was a beat of silence as the two of you stared at Asgore's house, wondering what was going on inside. After a moment, you heard the front door open, and saw Asgore and Toriel walk out with a human. The man was middle-aged and balding. He wore a suit and held himself like he was someone important. Otherwise, he was utterly nondescript. After spending nearly half a year surrounded by nothing but monsters, the sight of this man was almost disturbingly normal.

As Asgore, Toriel, and the human stopped to talk in the middle of the road, you shrank back to better hide yourself behind the neighbor's house. You frowned when you realized that Frisk hadn't emerged from the house with the others. Were there more humans in there, talking to the kid?

 _We could always go check it out._ Sans suggested mischievously. _Unless you forgot how to make a shortcut again._

 _Shut up, you big bag of bones._ To prove him wrong, you brought up the nearby shortcuts, examining them like one might peruse an all-you-can-eat buffet. It wasn't long before you found just the one you were looking for, and stepped through it as quietly as you could.

Once you were through the wormhole, you found yourself back in Asgore's house. Only this time, you were in the empty guest bedroom, just off of the living room. Well, empty, save for some cardboard boxes that Asgore apparently still hadn't gotten around to unpacking. You ignored them, more interested in the murmuring voices coming from the next room. The bedroom door was open a crack, so you hid behind it as you eavesdropped.

"...treating you well, Frisk?" You only caught the last half of the question, posed by a deep, masculine voice. There was a moment of silence, and you strained to hear what was happening. After a few seconds, someone responded,

"Yes, everyone's great." The reply came from a higher pitched voice that was decidedly not Frisk's. It took you a second to realize - it was probably a translator. Was this some kind of social worker visit?

"I see you have a lot of band-aids on your arms and legs… what're all those from?" The voice was not unkind, but you bristled nonetheless. Frisk liked to put bandages on every single little bump and scrape, and Toriel obliged it, even if there was no visible injury. Maybe that was not such a good idea.

There was a much longer pause than the last. Finally, the translator spoke, sounding a little overwhelmed.

"Um… okay, so the one on the right knee is from yesterday when they tripped and fell and got rug burn, the one on their cheek is from two days ago when a dog accidentally scratched them… oh, wait, sorry, not just any dog, it was _Greater Dog_ , who is one of their neighbors… the one on their finger is from when they were playing cards with Papyrus and got a paper cut, the one on their elbow is-"

"OKAY, thank you, that's all I need to know." You muffled a snort as you imagined the social worker with a strained smile. "Now, Frisk, you seem to like it here a lot, huh?" There was a short break, in which you assumed Frisk had nodded. "Well, that's good, but I bet there's people out there who miss you, aren't there?" There was a long, pregnant pause. You waited with bated breath, unsure if Frisk was giving a speech or just not saying anything. It seemed to be the latter, since the deeper voice spoke again,

"Your real parents must be worried sick about you. Don't you think it's time to go back home?" More silence. "If you could just tell us your mom and dad's names, then we could find them and tell them you're okay. What do you think?" Another pause, this one even heavier than the last. You wanted to intervene, since you could tell without looking that Frisk was uncomfortable. They were being ganged up on by adults; it wasn't fair. But Sans held you back, as he reasoned, probably correctly, that your presence would only make the situation worse. Finally, the translator spoke,

"Toriel is my real mom, and Asgore is my real dad." You smiled, proud of the kid for sticking up for themself. You knew nothing about Frisk's home life, if they even had one, but you did know that they were being treated well here (even if their diet left something to be desired). There were a lot of people at the camp and in the Underground who cared about them, though you supposed you could understand why the humans would want to find their biological parents. It seemed suspicious to you, though, that Frisk's parents hadn't come forward. Surely they knew by now that Frisk was gone… hadn't they filed a missing person's report?

While you were mulling it over, the social worker was still talking to the kid. His voice was strained, as though his patience was wearing thin.

"I realize that you think that, but I'm asking about your human parents. What are their names?." Almost no time passed before the translator spoke again, as though Frisk was gaining confidence.

"I don't… uh… they say they don't have human parents." The voice sounded reluctant to pass on the information. There was a long-suffering sigh.

"Okay, Frisk. I really wish you would tell us so we could get you back home. We'll try again another day, okay?" There was one more pause.

"O-oh, um, well…" The translator stammered, reluctant to pass on Frisk's message. "They… they said, 'No matter how many times you come back, Toriel and Asgore will still be my mom and dad.'" The social worker hummed, and you could detect a hint of frustration in his voice when he said,

"We'll see about that." Thankfully, you heard the door open and close as the humans left the house. You released a breath of air that you hadn't noticed you were holding. You hadn't even been part of the conversation, and yet it still made you tense.

Suddenly, the door you were hiding behind creaked as it was pushed open. You froze, a jolt of fear running through your spine, but it was just Frisk's face that peered at you from around the corner. You let out a relieved laugh.

"How'd you know I was here?" You asked as the kid walked into the empty bedroom, closing the door behind them.

 **Saw your shadow under the door.** Frisk sat down on the floor, and you followed suit, crossing your legs as you carefully avoided leaning against the wall. You didn't want to get blood on the white paint, after all. **Thanks for being there.** You cocked your head, unsure why Frisk would thank you for spying on them.

"Yeah…" There was an awkward pause. Frisk picked at a loose thread on the sleeve of their sweater. Generally, Sans handled every interaction the two of you had with the kid, or at least coached you on what to say. But now, he was unusually silent. You'd never seen a child look so troubled before, and you didn't know what to do about it. "So, um… what happened with your real parents? I won't tell anyone." Frisk gave you a cross look. Obviously, you'd said the wrong thing.

 **Toriel and Asgore** _ **are**_ **my real parents!** They screwed up their face and looked away from you. Eventually, their expression fell, and they just looked sad. **My human mom and dad aren't very nice… I don't think they want me back.**

You _really_ didn't know what to say to that. Your parents had always been loving and attentive; you couldn't relate at all. And Frisk was such a nice kid! They didn't deserve crappy parents, or to be harassed now that they finally did have a proper family. It just… sucked.

 **I don't want them to take me away…** Frisk's hands shook as they sniffled. Your soul ached for them, and you made a pained little noise in the back of your throat. The kid looked up at you, their eyes big and red. You didn't know what to do, but you held out your arms anyway. Surprisingly, they crawled over to you, sitting by your side and leaning into your skeletal body. They pressed their teary face into your ribs, wiping their eyes on your robe. You wrapped an arm around their shoulder and patted them. It was awkward, but enough.

"I won't let anyone take you, Frisk. I promise." Your voice rumbled with emotion. Sans cringed at your matter-of-fact statement.

 _You shouldn't make promises, especially ones you can't keep._ He reprimanded you, but, as Frisk looked up at you with wet eyes and a big smile, you couldn't bring yourself to care. You felt a deep sense of protectiveness for the kid. The feeling was foreign, and you couldn't really tell how much of it was coming from you and how much was from Sans, but it didn't really matter.

 **Okay.** Frisk signed simply and wrapped their little arms around your spine in a hug. You grinned and shifted a little, trying to keep them from touching the bloodsoaked parts of your robe.

Suddenly, you heard the front door open and close again. In a flash, Frisk had leapt from your arms and raced out the bedroom door. You took a little more time to stand up. By the time you made it to the living room, Frisk had wrapped Toriel in a hug, the Queen kneeling on the floor so as to better hold the kid. Asgore was there, too, a slight frown on his face. Before you could say anything, he gave you a serious look and said,

"Orion, you should not have left." You clenched your jaw, feeling like a child being reprimanded without knowing the reason.

"Why? I don't want to talk to them." You muttered the last part. Asgore shook his head, while Toriel stood up. She took Frisk with her, setting the kid on her hip as she held them.

"They knew you were here, my child." Toriel explained gently, "They can see the road from their towers, and they saw you entering this house earlier this morning. In fact, I believe they came here specifically to speak to you. And Frisk." Toriel and Asgore shared a look, and you were filled with dread. "They were very curious about you, dear."

"We tried to evade their questions, however, they seemed quite suspicious. They see you disappearing into the trees everyday. They do not seem to know about your… abilities yet, but…" Asgore paused, his mouth a thin line. You had a feeling you weren't going to like what he was about to say. "I am afraid I must insist that you come live here, in the camp."

"No." You rebelled immediately, crossing your arms. You felt that Sans was thinking about arguing with you, and shut him down before he could even begin. This was one thing that you were not going to budge on. Asgore blinked, surprised by your blatant insubordination.

"Orion, be reasonable." Toriel said, her voice noticeably sterner than before. "You told me that you were living in the barn to protect your human body. Well, the body is not there anymore. There is no reason for you to stay." Her reasoning was sound, but you were stubborn.

"No. Nobody's gonna tell me where I can or can't live." Even as you stood in the living room, you felt the itch to leave. The house was suddenly too small. It felt like a cell, with its low ceilings and single, tiny window.

"Is this the human part of you speaking?" Toriel asked, and it sounded somehow condescending. It bothered you that she'd guessed correctly. Sans didn't love the idea of being confined to the camp either, but he would've just taken the easy route and not fought for his freedom. Complacency might've been fine for him, but it didn't suit you. Your fingers twitched and you bared your teeth.

"It doesn't matter who's talking!" Instinctively, your eyes flickered to the door as though to make sure it was still there. Without even realizing you were doing it, the shortcuts started to appear, the ones closest to you even opening into small spheres. No one else could see them, of course, but the two large monsters and the one small human seemed to sense the magic gathering in the air. You even felt a burning sensation in your right eye, and you weren't sure what to make of it. Asgore looked at you like you were a bomb about to detonate.

"Alright. Perhaps we can come to a compromise for now, and revisit this issue at another time." You took a harsh, raspy breath, then nodded for him to continue. "Is it possible that you could teleport from the barn to one of the empty houses, instead of the forest? This way, it would appear as though you were living in the house, and you could walk around the camp without suspicion." You thought about it for a long moment, then nodded again.

"I could try." The shortcuts started to fade, and your breathing evened out. The strange pain in your eye died down. "Yeah, I can probably do that." As you calmed down, you noticed that everyone was staring at you. Except for Frisk, who had their face buried in Toriel's shoulder. "Um, if you didn't need me for anything else, I'll just… go look into that." You started to shuffle toward the door when Asgore stopped you.

"Actually, I would like to speak with you about one other thing before you leave." The King glanced at Toriel, who jumped.

"Oh, dear… Papyrus is probably waiting for me at the lab. I told him not to practice without me… let's go meet him, my child." Still holding Frisk, Toriel turned and swept gracefully through the front door. Strangely, instead of waving goodbye, Frisk kept their face hidden in Toriel's fur as they were carried away.

As soon as they left, Asgore brushed past you into the kitchen. You let him pass, then followed him to the open doorway between the two rooms. You watched as he began the process of boiling water in a kettle, pulling out two cups from the ceiling cabinet. It was clear that you were going to get a cup of tea, despite having declined his offer for it earlier.

Asgore didn't speak to you as he made the drink, but the silence was kind of nice. It helped to defuse some of the tension between the two of you, and you learned a thing or two about making tea in the process. You'd never actually watched Asgore make it before, and the whole process struck you as ritualistic. The aroma, the motions, the sound of sloshing water… it was all so calming.

When the tea was done, you thanked Asgore quietly and sat down at the table. You took a sip. It was still just as bad as you remembered. Instead of forcing yourself to gulp the whole thing down, you simply held the warm ceramic in your hands and breathed in the pleasant smell. You figured you weren't obligated to drink it, since you'd received the cup unsolicited. Asgore seemed to notice you come to that conclusion, and let out a deep, rumbling laugh.

"You know, if you do not like tea, you could always just say so. I will not be offended, I promise." You felt your face heat up.

"Sans likes it… kinda." You mumbled, pulling your hood up over your head and hunching over to bring your nose closer to the tea. "And it smells nice." Asgore chuckled again.

"Well, as long as you get some enjoyment out of it, then it is worth making, in my opinion. After all, it is not as if we have any shortage of golden flowers to use!" You twitched a little, and spared a brief thought to one golden flower in particular. You didn't really have time to worry about Flowey, though. There were more pressing problems.

"You wanted to talk about something?" You asked, tapping a single talon against your cup.

"Yes, but first, I wanted to make sure you were alright." He fixed you with an appraising look. "Are you alright?" It was an oddly sincere question, coming from someone you didn't honestly know all that well.

"Um, yeah, I'm good." You shifted a little in your seat, unconsciously making yourself as small as possible. "I guess I just… don't like being confined. Sorry if I scared you…" You clenched your teeth, your jaw clicking as you popped your mandible in and out of place restlessly. You hadn't meant to frighten anyone; you realized you could be a bit scary, even to other monsters. And all of this magic stuff was still new to you, so you didn't have the best control over it.

 _Maybe you should practice… I guess I could help, if you want._ Sans offered, and you silently agreed, thankful for the assistance. In contrast to you, Sans seemed to have extremely good control over the magic the two of you shared. He would be an ideal teacher. There was still something nagging at Sans, though, and you pushed him to explain. _It's… well… is it my fault? That you freaked out back there? I mean, I locked you in the shed for, like, a week… that can't have been fun. I didn't even think about how scared you might've been, I didn't know-_

 _It's okay. Don't worry about it._ You responded, but it wasn't much of an answer to his question. You didn't really want to think about it, and besides, Asgore was talking.

"No need to apologize, young one… it takes more than a glowing eye socket to scare me." Asgore chuckled, and you tilted your head. Was that what that burning sensation had been? You'd never actually seen Sans' eyes glow outside of the game, so you'd kind of forgotten it was a thing he could do. "Although… you may have given Frisk a bit of a fright." You remembered how Frisk wouldn't look at you as they left, and groaned. The last thing you wanted to do was make the kid scared of you.

You were so mortified that you asked Sans to take over for you, and he grudgingly obliged. The first thing he did was push your hood down, and the second thing he did was take a big gulp from the cup of tea you'd been nursing. You recoiled as the astringent taste assaulted your senses.

 _I hate you._ You said, dryly, but there was no real weight to your words. Sans grinned and leaned back in his chair, his wings sliding on the ground as he moved.

"Nah, you know you love me." Sans slipped and accidentally spoke out loud. It was a mistake that typically only you made, so you were a little smug that Sans had done it this time. His skull heated up, and he looked over at Asgore sheepishly. The King, for his part, was watching you with an amused expression.

"I take it I am no longer speaking to the human?" Sans rubbed the back of his skull, his easy smile returning.

"Heh, nope. They're still listening, though" He leaned back some more, making the chair creak under his weight. In your head, you warned him not to break it. He responded by taking another sip of the tea.

 _Asshole._ But, even as you were thinking it, he compromised with you by sitting up straight. He didn't actually want to damage the King's property, either.

Asgore watched you for a moment. You thought he might've been trying to figure out what the two of you were talking about, but he seemed to give up after a while. He blinked slowly and shook his large head.

"The two of you have a very unique relationship, you know. Not many people get to experience another person so completely… I do hope you treasure it while it lasts." With that simple statement, things suddenly got very awkward inside of your own mind. You supposed Asgore was right; you'd just never really thought about it like that. Like it was a _good_ thing, something to be treasured. You guessed Sans hadn't, either, if the intense blush on his face was anything to go by. Asgore laughed heartily at Sans' expression.

"Sorry, I did not mean to make you uncomfortable! How about we change the subject?" The King suggested, mercifully.

"Please." Sans mumbled, taking a drink from the tea absentmindedly.

"Well, I just wanted to update you on the situation regarding the medical supplies." You perked up at that. What with everything that had happened with Frisk, you'd forgotten about the initial reason you'd come to Asgore's house. "While Frisk was in here, I spoke to Mr. Reives outside. He is the human who supposedly deals with the supplies that come in and out of the camp, he says he is some kind of agent… anyway, he says the supplies should be arriving tomorrow. But, there are some things on your list that he could not get for us."

"Like what?" Sans asked for you, though you dreaded the answer. You'd only listed the bare minimum as far as what was necessary for life support; if there was something on that list that you couldn't get, it was bound to be a problem. Asgore held up two fingers.

"Two things… the blood, and the… um… defibrutater?"

 _Defibrillator._ You corrected him, forgetting that he couldn't hear you. Sans didn't pass that one on. He did, however, ask,

"That's a bit of a pickle. Why those two things? Did he give a reason?"

"Yes. He said that the defib-thing was too dangerous. I believe he may have thought we were going to adapt it as a weapon." Asgore shook his head, and you snorted derisively. The monsters had plenty of more effective weapons in the Underground; if they really wanted to do some damage, they wouldn't have needed to modify a defibrillator. "The bigger issue was the blood. He was quite suspicious as to why we needed human blood, and I had no good answer to give. I assume you do not wish to tell the humans about your situation, correct?" He looked a little nervous, as though he was worried you _would_ want to tell them. But you and Sans were in complete agreement on this.

"No, definitely not." You didn't even want to tell monsters about your human/monster hybrid status, let alone the suspicious human agents. It would raise far too many questions, and would put the tentative trust between the humans and monsters in jeopardy. You didn't know what Asgore told them about you and the other humans who'd gone missing on Mount Ebott, or if he told them anything at all. The injustice of it still nagged at you, but even you could agree that it wasn't worth a few pints of blood.

"S'okay… we'll figure it out." You thought Sans was saying it to you as much as to Asgore. He shrugged, then stood from his seat. "Sorry to cut the tea party short, but if that's all, I've got something I need to take care of." You were confused, until Sans reminded you of the weight in your front pocket. Asgore looked unsurprised, and stood after Sans.

"Yes, that is all. Just remember to claim one of the houses before you teleport anywhere."

"Right, yeah. I'll do that." Sans said as he made his way to the front door, eager to leave. He gave the King a half-wave and a mumbled goodbye. The longer he had to wait, the more anxious he got to read the note Toriel had given him. Sans arbitrarily picked the nearest house, which happened to be next to Asgore's, right in the center of the line of pre-built camp houses. Asgore watched from his doorway until you got inside, stepping through the unlocked door into your new home.

"It's not really our home… more of a shortcut hub, really." Sans pointed out, and you supposed he was right. The place didn't feel very homely; it was void of any personal touches, with the walls all bare and only the most minimal furnishings present. There was a couch in the living room, a table in the dining room, beds in the bedrooms, and that was about it. You were never really one to put much thought into decorations, but this was depressingly cold even by your standards. It didn't really matter, though… it wasn't like you had to live there for any longer than it took to ride a shortcut in and out.

There was an unusually high concentration of shortcuts in the small house, but Sans made short work of sussing out where each of them led. Interestingly, there was one right in the center of the living room that led all the way to Italy, but none that took you within walking distance to the barn. Sans had explained to you before that it was much more common to find shortcuts that only dropped you a meter or two away, but that there were occasionally wormholes that led all the way around the world. It had something to do with the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, but the details of the explanation were lost on you.

Though he couldn't find a shortcut that led directly to the barn, Sans did find one that dropped him right next to the _other_ shortcut you'd been using to get back and forth to the camp before. Both of you figured this was good enough, since the trees were too thick for the guards in their towers to see you hopping between shortcuts, anyway. Unfortunately, this particular shortcut was located in the bathroom, which was very small and thus very difficult for you to fit your massive body into. But eventually, you and Sans persevered, though the doorway was a little worse for wear.

By the time you made it back to the barn, the two of you were already tired and exasperated, and it wasn't even noon yet. Sans wasted no time climbing the ladder to the loft, sparing a glance toward the cane and the ripped up blue jacket sitting together in a corner. He plopped down on a vaguely bed-shaped pile of hay, which was where each of you laid down at night while the other slept. The hay was scratchy and bloodied from weeks of exposure to your bare muscles, but neither of you really cared anymore. Sans sat on the edge of the makeshift bed, his wings bent awkwardly to the side, and pulled out the necromancy book and the small note from the inner pocket of his robe.

With a deep breath, he read out loud to you,

"ENTRY NUMBER FIVE

I HAVE STOPPED TRYING TO REBUILD THE TIME MACHINE  
IT WAS A GREAT INVENTION  
BUT WHY REMAKE IT  
WHEN IT WILL NEVER DO WHAT I NEED IT TO?

I AM WRITING THIS BOOK  
SO THAT MY CRAFT WILL NOT DIE WITH ME  
BUT AFTER THAT  
I HAVE NOTHING

IF I AM THE ONE WHO IS SUPPOSED TO SAVE EVERYONE  
THEN IT IS NO WONDER WE ARE ALL STILL TRAPPED DOWN HERE"

Silence followed. A single bird chirped in the rafters overhead as you and Sans ruminated on this new development.

 _So… Gaster wrote the "Book of the Dead."_ You commented, and Sans' eyes flicked over to the book, which was lying next to him on the hay. _I mean, I guess it makes sense. He had to have been a necromancer if he knew their secret language, right?_ You'd been half-thinking it for a while, but you and Sans had never really talked about it proper. Now that you knew for sure, the book felt a lot more valuable. Sans brushed the fingers of his left hand over it, almost reverently.

 _Y'know, Sans… Gaster's a skeleton. You and Papyrus are skeletons. You have pictures from other timelines with yourself and Gaster. Papyrus is a necromancer, which is a type of magic that's notorious for being passed down genetically. The thought's probably crossed your mind before, but I think it's pretty clear now that Gaster's related to you, somehow._ You stopped and listened, trying to gauge Sans' reaction. He was quiet for a moment, and then…

"We have to find the other entries… as soon as possible."


	12. Dead in the Water

"As soon as possible" ended up being "right now," since Sans was gone and out the door as soon as he'd safely stored Gaster's book and fifth entry in your phone's dimensional box. He only stopped long enough to send a quick text to Alphys, who must've texted you sometime during the whole fiasco with the humans. She'd asked if he was planning on coming to the lab today, and he responded in the negative. He had more ambitious plans for the afternoon than being Alphys' assistant, it seemed.

 _You gonna tell me where you plan on finding these entries, sparky?_ Sans snorted at your comment, not bothering to close the barn door as he left. There was nothing in there worth protecting anymore.

"I'm goin' back to the basement. It's the only place I know of that isn't always affected by resets." In your mind's eye, you saw a flash of the stack of pictures in the drawer, which seemed to persist no matter how many resets occurred. The strangeness of that was not lost on you. "Something must've happened there to make it act like that. Maybe there's more clues Gaster left behind in there."

That _did_ bring up an interesting question; why were all of these journal entries just scattered around? The way they were formatted suggested that they were initially written down in an organized, chronological manner, so why were they strewn all over the place? After all, people didn't usually write their diary entries on the backs of pictures and important blueprints.

Sans didn't have patience for your rhetorical questions; he'd had years to think about it himself and still hadn't come up with a good answer in all that time. You certainly weren't going to think of anything revolutionary in the time it took him to hop through a few shortcuts.

Getting to Snowdin took a little longer than usual, since Sans was forced to take an extra shortcut to the house and then walk all the way up the road to the Underground's exit. But luckily, there were no distractions along the way. The camp was dead, as it was the middle of the day and everyone was off doing their own thing. Even Endogeny wasn't around to greet you as you passed, though you couldn't imagine where they had gone without you.

Your own paranoia prompted Sans to look over his shoulder at the Northwest guard tower before disappearing into the Underground. It was too far away to make out any details, but you were certain there was a human up there, watching you. What were they thinking right now? Did they fear you? Hate you?

Well, there was nothing to be done about it, regardless. You didn't have much time to worry about it before you were in the basement again, watching as Sans rifled through the photographs for the millionth time. You privately doubted he would find anything new in any of them and, lo and behold, he didn't.

 _Staring at those pictures isn't gonna get you anywhere. You need to look somewhere you've never looked before. Go at it with fresh eyes._ Sans threw up his hands, exasperated.

"Alright, backseat driver, where do you think we should look?" He asked, begrudgingly. You thought for a moment, the body's eyes drifting unconsciously toward the machine in the corner.

"Okay, okay… jeeze, you've got some kind of fascination with this thing, huh?" Sans teased as he shuffled over to the hunk of metal, smoothing a hand over the top, which he'd never been able to reach when he was in his normal body.

 _It's a time machine. It's cool._ You felt some kind of nerdy, childish glee just looking at it. Despite having been in this basement twice before, you'd never gotten a chance to really examine it. It looked pretty beat up, but you could at least tell there was an interior and an exterior, with the exterior being a mess of wires and tubes and the interior containing a complicated system of knobs, buttons, and levers. You kind of wanted to push some of the buttons, but felt that nothing much would happen even if you did. The whole machine looked to be in rough shape, with several of the parts containing big cracks and the door hanging off of its hinges.

"Your computer's a more functional time machine than this hunk of metal." Sans said with a hint of bitterness as he nudged the base of the machine with his foot. He was right, you supposed, but the machine still looked much more badass than your laptop. Sans' chest rumbled with incredulous laughter as he listened into your thoughts. "Well, uh, I don't think we'll find much here, either. I know this thing like the back of my hand." You hummed and thought for a moment.

 _What about the top?_ Sans raised his brows. He knew every inch of this machine, except for the top. He simply hadn't thought it important, since he'd studied the blueprints and knew that all of the functionality of the time machine was either on the sides or under an access panel in the floor. There was only about a foot of space between the top of the machine and the ceiling, but, when Sans obliged you and peered into it, he saw that there was an odd-looking, metal hatch right in the center.

"No way." He reached back there and pulled up the hatch. Had either of you been in your proper bodies, you wouldn't have been able to reach it. But, as it was, Sans' arms were plenty long enough to open the hatch and root around inside. It seemed to be some kind of small storage area, which Sans was sure was not on any of the blueprints. He felt something flat sitting in there, and pulled it out from its hiding spot.

It was a floppy disk, sitting in a cheap, plastic sleeve. There was no label, or anything really to identify it. But it had to have been important if it was tucked in some secret compartment of the time machine.

 _Papyrus' computer. We could pop it in there._ You suggested helpfully. Your own tiny laptop didn't even have a CD player, let alone a floppy disk drive, so you'd have to find some other way to see its contents. You remembered Papyrus' computer running Windows 2000, so if it was manufactured around that time, there was a chance it still had a way to read floppy disks.

"If he even still has that thing in this timeline. And if he didn't take it to the new house with him." Sans pointed out, but, despite his doubts, he was already heading up the basement stairs.

Sans knocked on the front door hesitantly. He didn't think Papyrus would be there; you were fairly certain he was at the lab with Toriel and Alphys. But it didn't hurt to check, anyway. Sans gave his brother plenty of time to answer the door before turning the knob himself, only to find it was locked. He shouldn't have been surprised, but it made his heart ache a little, anyway. He didn't have a key, which was just another reminder that he didn't belong here anymore.

 _Now who's forgetting he can teleport?_ You teased, but your tone was slightly cautious. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

"I didn't forget." Sans scoffed before effortlessly opening up a shortcut to his own living room. He tried not to look around too much as he marched straight for the stairs, but he couldn't help but to notice that things looked just a little different. There was no dirty sock, no pet rock, and no joke quantum physics book. The place just had a cleaner feel overall, but otherwise it looked about how he remembered it. At least all of the shortcuts were still in the exact same places - one of the few things that was guaranteed to never change, no matter what happened in each timeline. He took his favorite shortcut in the whole house, which led from the bottom of the stairs to the top, and opened up Papyrus' bedroom door while steadfastly ignoring his own. The last thing he wanted was to see what Paps had done with his room in his absence.

He couldn't avoid seeing his brother's room, however. It looked mostly the same, though, interestingly, there was an awful lot of pirate-themed paraphernalia decorating the walls and the bookshelf. Many of his action figures were also pirates, and he even had a little model ship sitting on the table. Why was Papyrus suddenly so obsessed with pirates now that Sans wasn't around? Had he unknowingly squashed his brother's interest in them? He wracked his memory, trying to think of a time when Papyrus had even mentioned pirates. Did he even know what they were?

 _Don't overthink it, Sans._ You warned him, _Undyne did find him that pirate flag in your timeline… maybe this new interest is just a side-effect of hanging out with her more often._ It did make sense that Undyne might like pirates, what with the eyepatch and the obsession with swords. And Papyrus idolized her, even in this version of events where they grew up together. Or maybe there was a different reason… the point was, it didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

What was more heartbreaking to you was the complete lack of children's books, which used to hold pride of place on Papyrus' bookshelf. The reason for this change was more obvious; why would he need bedtime stories when there was no one around to read them to him? But Sans hadn't noticed that yet, distracted as he was with the pirate thing. You tried very hard not to think about it, so he never would.

Luckily, one thing that hadn't changed was the computer sitting in the corner of Papyrus' room. And, even more fortunate, it had a floppy disk drive. Sans knew very little about computers, so he let you take the reins as you booted up the machine and popped the rectangular disk in, feeling a little nostalgic since the last time you'd used a floppy disk was when you were a kid. You waited patiently as the floppy disk drive made a godawful noise, before it quieted down and you were able to pull up the files on the computer.

The first thing you noticed were a lot of corrupted files. Their names were just nonsensical letters and symbols, and, when you tried to open them, the computer wasn't having it. You guessed they'd been text files at some point, simply because a floppy disk didn't have the memory space to hold much else other than that. But otherwise, you had no clue what could've been on them. This frustrated Sans, who asked,

 _Can't you bring them back?_

"I really don't think so." You didn't know much about restoring corrupted files, but you had the feeling that these were too far gone.

There was, however, one file that didn't look corrupt. It was simply titled "3." Feeling a tingling sense of trepidation, you double clicked it open. You didn't bother changing the font from wingdings to something more sensible, since Sans was already reading it out to you.

"ENTRY NUMBER THREE

IT DID NOT WORK  
THE TIME MACHINE COULD NOT TAKE ME FAR ENOUGH  
IT COULD ONLY BRING ME BACK TO THE CREATION OF THE BARRIER  
BEFORE MALFUNCTIONING

THIS WAS NOT BY MY OWN ERROR  
I KNOW I BUILT IT PERFECTLY

IT SEEMS  
THAT THE CREATION OF THE BARRIER  
MARKS THE BEGINNING OF TIME ITSELF

THE HUMANS DID NOT TRAP US UNDERGROUND  
THEY TRAPPED US IN AN ENTIRELY NEW UNIVERSE  
IT IS THE ONLY EXPLANATION  
THIS IS…

…  
I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO FIX THIS  
I DO NOT THINK I CAN FIX THIS

I HAVE FAILED AGAIN"

Your eyes roved over the entry, again and again. It was by far the longest one so far, but it didn't really tell you anything you didn't already know.

 _What do you mean?! Gaster knew about the Underground being in another universe! He figured it out! I'd say that's pretty damn important._ Sans was uncharacteristically excited, but you didn't really understand why. You didn't mean to be a downer, but…

"But _we_ already knew about that. The game... Undertale... was the alternate universe he was talking about. So, yeah, good for Gaster for working that out, but it's kind of a moot point now." As you talked, you closed the file and popped the floppy disk back out of the computer.

 _Okay, well… at least we found an entry, right?_ You slipped the disk back into its plastic sleeve and sighed. _Hey, what's your problem? This is a good thing!_ The way Sans said it had you bristling. It took you a moment to figure it out, but eventually you were able to pinpoint what was bothering you about the situation.

"It's just… I mean, we're only finding the early entries, so far. We know there's at least seventeen, and we've only found two through five. And they're already getting kind of depressing… I just don't like the direction this is going." There was a flash of anger from Sans.

 _Look, kid, I've been drivin' myself crazy trying to figure this shit out for_ years _. I dunno why we're suddenly finding all of these entries now, but there's no way in hell I'm gonna stop just because it's starting to look like this might not have a happy ending._ You grunted and scuffed your foot on the carpet. You knew that you didn't really have any right to discourage Sans from investigating this; after all, he was involved in it somehow… those pictures in the basement proved that. But you had a bad, gut feeling about it.

Sans' tone was softer when he continued, _And you said it yourself… Gaster and I are probably related. So, uh, if he's family, and something bad happened to him… I gotta know. Maybe I can help him, somehow._ You were quiet for a moment, before your face set into a determined line.

"We." You grunted, standing up as straight as you could in the middle of Papyrus' abandoned, pirate-themed room. Sans seemed confused, so you elaborated, "We're gonna help him. You're not going to do this alone anymore… and not just because we're stuck in the same body. Even if we get separated before we figure all this out, I still want to help you." Even though you felt this could only end badly, even if Sans was doomed to just make himself more miserable by pursuing this… well, you weren't going to let him be miserable alone. You decided that, if this was so important to Sans, then it was important to you, too.

Sans was oddly touched by your declaration. You hadn't meant to make this into some kind of chick-flick moment, but it was quickly turning into just that. You coughed and felt yourself blush.

"Um, anyway… we should probably get out of Papyrus' room." It took you a second to realize that you were the one in control, so if you wanted to leave, you could just do it yourself. You turned around abruptly and marched out the door, getting more flustered the longer Sans stayed silent. Somehow, you nearly tripped over the banister on the way out. "Okay… you can stop now." You felt Sans growing more amused the more awkward you became. Still, he said nothing, obviously doing it on purpose now. "Oh my god, just say something so that I know you're not dead!"

 _Something._ You facepalmed yourself, pulling up your hood self-consciously as you descended the stairs.

"I hate you."

 _No, you don't, kid._


	13. Just and Righteous

Sulking around in the middle of a public, human place felt very, very wrong when you were a giant skeleton monstrosity.

It had been exactly a week since you and Sans found Entry 3, but you hadn't managed to find anything new since then. You'd searched the time machine top to bottom, inspecting every nook and cranny for another note or floppy disk, but to no avail. You even took a shot at fixing those corrupted files, but you didn't know what you were doing and didn't think you'd made any headway.

It didn't help that you hardly had any time to search for these entries. Alphys had come to rely on Sans' help with the Determination machine, and he couldn't afford to take another day off like last time. He and Alphys had to keep up with Papyrus, who was learning necromancy at an alarming pace. You'd had to find more dead animals for him (which was just another time consuming task that was keeping you away from the Gaster mystery) and he was now able to control multiples at the same time. Endogeny wasn't even fazed anymore by the zoo of dead critters that roamed around in the lab. Toriel, for her part, was experimenting with using her healing magic on the resurrected animals. She was able to heal their superficial wounds while Papyrus was working his magic on them, but, once Pap let go of his control over them, the wounds either reopened or the animal just dropped dead regardless of whether their bodies still held any physical damage. You considered that progress, though, and encouraged them to keep at it.

In the meantime, the humans finally delivered your medical supplies to you. You hadn't realized the humans would come in a helicopter, but you supposed it made sense what with there being no roads that went this far up the mountain. It was quite a spectacular sight, watching from the window of your empty house as they landed their military-grade helicopter in the middle of the usually quiet, deserted road, but the supplies they brought were rather lacking. Asgore had said you wouldn't be getting a defibrillator or any blood, but you were still disappointed to find those items missing. On the bright side, you now had an IV, a respirator, bandages, surgical suture, and a rather sparse supply of pain meds. It was better than nothing.

Still, none of it would replace the fatal amount of blood your body had lost. You had no hope of living for any amount of time without it. Thankfully, when you mentioned the problem to Alphys, she came up with a solution that, frankly, you should've thought of right away.

"W-well, c-couldn't you just u-use your own… um… b-blood?" Of course, it was so simple… you bled all over the place from the bare muscles on your shoulders and legs. You had to wash your robe vigorously everyday to get out the dark splotches of gore that stained it. Why not just collect that to use for your human body?

Admittedly, it ended up being a little more difficult than that. You had no way of typing your blood to make sure your immune system wouldn't reject it; you had to operate on the blind faith that your monster blood type would be the same as when you'd been a human. It was a potentially fatal assumption to make, but there wasn't much to be done about it.

Plus, actually getting the blood was time consuming in and of itself. Alphys helped you rig the IV line you'd been given to suck the blood out of your muscles and into bags, but the process was slow and tedious. You had to sit still and, since the blood didn't really circulate through your tissues, you had to keep poking yourself with the needle in different places to get at pockets of blood. It hurt, and it sucked, and you wished you could've slept through it like Sans did.

Speaking of sleep, you and Sans hardly got any nowadays. Sleeping in shifts had been fine in the summer, when your only responsibility had been to make sure there was always ice in the trough. But, now that you were so busy, it was a good day when you and Sans got ten hours of shuteye. Papyrus may have thought you lazy for sleeping that long, but really, that only translated to five hours each when you couldn't sleep at the same time. Being a former college student, you were a little more adapted to sleep depravation, but Sans was really having a rough time with it. He was perpetually exhausted, and, on one horrifying occasion, even accidentally fell asleep with you, which led to some terrifying, confusing nightmares. You tried your best to make sure he always got enough sleep, after that.

Which led you to your current situation; raiding a public library at three in the morning, when you really should've been sleeping instead. You were still short a defibrillator, after all, and you remembered the library on campus having one behind glass in case of emergencies. You decided to go during your own allotted sleeping time, with the thought that you might be able to grab a nap sometime during the day.

 _Sorry._ Sans apologized, not for the first time.

 _Don't beat yourself up over it._ You were careful not to speak out loud as you contemplated the locked glass casing, the one unparalyzed corner of your mouth turned down in a frown. Why would someone put an emergency defibrillator behind lock and key? Seemed counterproductive, in an emergency situation. _That dream was punishment enough, surely._

You shuddered at the thought. You didn't usually get too worked up over nightmares, but that one had been… bad. You'd been fighting in the judgement hall, which wasn't too unusual itself, but you'd felt like you were in two different bodies. You were both Sans and Frisk, tearing yourself to pieces over and over again with the slash of a knife or the burning, blinding flash of a blaster. Toward the end, you didn't even know who _you_ were. All you felt was anger, and fear, and resignation.

In the throes of your nightmare, your magic had gone crazy. You'd woken up screaming, though you weren't sure if it was you or Sans making that godawful sound (and _that_ was frightening enough in its own right). Both of your eyes had _burned_ , filling the room with a blinding, blue light. By the time you'd come to your senses, the barn was in disarray. What few possessions you owned had been scattered around among the hay. There were several new holes in the ceiling, the mirror in the loft was cracked, and even the trough had somehow been overturned. It was just fortunate there hadn't been anything in it, and even more fortunate that there was no one else around who you could've hurt. Well, no one, except for a single bird. Poor thing must've gotten caught in whatever fit you'd been throwing in your sleep, since its little body had been mutilated beyond repair. You'd given in to Papyrus and Toriel as a challenge, with no comment on where it had come from.

 _Still, you saw the dream, too, and it was my bad._ Sans pulled you from your thoughts. You shook your head, unwilling to pass the blame around like some sort of game of hot potato.

Instead, you went back to trying to pry the defibrillator's case open. You really needed to get in and out fast; if you remembered correctly, the library didn't open until 7:00, but you still didn't want to linger. "Screw it," You muttered before smashing your fist into the glass. It shattered easily, but made a loud noise which startled even you. You grabbed the compact little defibrillator and bolted, disappearing through a shortcut before anyone could've discovered you.

You reappeared several miles from the base of Mount Ebott, on the shores of a large lake. Lake Carter, if you remembered correctly from your brief camping days. Your friends had been against camping on this side of the mountain; the city of Ebott loomed in the distance, cheapening the view and the camping experience. But a lot of people liked to set up their tents near the lake, and you couldn't really blame them. The water was still and strikingly clear. It was beautiful, especially on this cloudless, October night, when the reflection of the stars glistened on the surface of the water. You were just lucky it was too cold at night now for humans to be outdoors, otherwise this place would've been crawling with campers.

Instinctively, your gaze followed the reflection up to the sky. Almost immediately, you found your favorite constellation. Orion's Belt was pretty easy to pick out, after all, and the rest just came with the package.

 _We should get a belt._ Sans thought, more to himself than to you. You snorted.

 _And a bow?_ You suggested, though Sans didn't seem to know what you were talking about. Your eyes helpfully drifted over to the rightmost shape of the constellation.

 _Is that what that is? I never actually knew what it was supposed to be._

 _Yeah. Orion's a hunter in Greek myths. If I had wikipedia, I'd look him up for you._ You took a moment to lament the lack of internet connection on the mountain. Idly, you wondered if you and Alphys could build the satellite again so you could finally be reunited with wifi. Getting the monsters connected to the rest of humanity was not a bad idea, actually, so you stored that thought in the back of your mind for later.

 _You know how much I like to_ shoot _the breeze, but we should get back to the barn. You need to sleep, kid._ You grinned at the pun, but rolled your eyes.

"Okay, _dad_ " You said sarcastically, and laughed when Sans short-circuited for a moment.

 _Wow. Don't call me that._

You really couldn't put it off any longer. Now that you had all of the medical supplies you wanted, you had no reason to keep Papyrus from working on your body. Your actual, human body, which, so far, you hadn't been able to even look at without going crazy. And now Papyrus was going to reanimate it.

You slept in a little longer than usual, both to make up for your 3 AM trip to the library and to put off what you knew you had to do that day. Sans was unusually optimistic and encouraging as you squeezed your way out of the bathroom of your fake house.

 _You'll be fine. And, hey, Alphys and I are nearly done modifying the DTEM… if things go well today, maybe we'll be back in our normal bodies soon._ "Nearly done" was pushing it, you thought, but you didn't say anything. Yes, Sans and Alphys only had one aspect of the machine left to build, but it was the one that was giving them the most trouble. They were having a hard time getting the machine to extract a human soul without it malfunctioning. They'd done a few dry runs of the machine, but the compartment that's supposed to hold the human soul while it's being extracted tended to… well, explode. You didn't know much about soul magic, but you assumed that was a slight problem.

You were so caught up in your own thoughts that you hardly even noticed when Endogeny slithered out of their own house and began to walk by your side. You gave them an idle pat on the head and let them come through a shortcut with you as soon as you were in the Underground and out of sight of the human guards. Somehow, having the dog amalgamation next to you helped to boost your confidence, if only a little.

When you arrived at the lab, clutching your newly-stolen defibrillator in your talons, Papyrus and Toriel were already waiting for you. It was startling, since they were standing right next to the shortcut you always used to get into the lab. Usually, they were off in the big bedroom, doing their own thing. The way they were waiting for you, expectantly, made you anxious all over again.

"Um… did I miss the memo? Is there a party in the elevator, or something?" A nervous grin spread on your face. Papyrus looked confused.

"A party?! Am I invited?" He didn't give you a chance to respond, "Nyeh! Of course I am! Nobody would ever forget to invite The Great Papyrus to their elevator party! I must have just misplaced the invitation! It is understandable, considering all of the letters I get everyday from adoring fans!" Papyrus was wearing his helmet today, so his voice echoed in the metal contraption and came out muffled and weird-sounding.

"Papyrus, dear, I believe Orion was joking." Toriel said patiently. You couldn't see Papyrus' face through the helmet, but you saw his shoulders slump. Toriel quickly amended, "But I am sure you would have been invited, if there really was a party." He perked up again, his mood changing quicker than you could process on so little sleep.

"Nyeh heh! Of course!"

"Anyway, Orion… you were taking a long time to arrive, so Papyrus and I have been making preparations in your absence." Toriel looked a bit guilty, which was never a good sign. You felt a cold sense of dread.

"What did you do?" You growled, perhaps a bit more threateningly than you intended. Toriel clasped her hands in front of her, and Endogeny pressed their head into your hand reassuringly.

"Well, we thought your… ah… human vessel would need time to… melt. Before we could begin to work on it, that is. We moved it to the examination room, so we thought it would be best to warn you beforehand…" She used the word "we" an awful lot, but you sensed this was all Toriel's doing. No offense to Papyrus, but you doubted he would've thought of something like that.

You didn't know how you felt about Toriel doing this without your permission. Betrayed, angry, thankful… it all coalesced into one big mess. You rubbed your forehead with your left hand, the bones scraping together abrasively.

 _Want me to take over?_ Sans offered, but you shook your head.

 _No, just tell me what to say._ Sans thought you were joking, but you were dead serious. You just couldn't think of an appropriate response at the moment, or any response at all, to be honest. God, you were so tired. Maybe you'd be too exhausted to freak out when you finally saw the body in question.

"Okay… just, in the future, don't do anything to the body without my permission, please." You repeated the words verbatim as Sans suggested them. Toriel looked cowed; a rare occurrence.

"Of course." Meanwhile, Papyrus, who seemed impatient with standing around and talking, whisked off his helmet and pointed dramatically down the less-used hallway that led to the examination room.

"Come, human! Let us begin the resurrection of your squishy, human flesh!" Papyrus grabbed your wrist and tugged you along. Without his interference, you probably wouldn't have been able to force yourself toward the room. "Quit dragging your feet!" Pap complained, struggling to move your giant, winged body. "Aren't you excited?! I am!" He really did look it, too. You supposed your nautiousness could've been interpreted as a type of excitement. "You'll be healed up and back to normal in no time!" You tried to keep that in mind as you braced yourself, stepping into the examination room with Papyrus' hand wrapped vice-like around yours.

Mercifully, though you could see the distinct shape of your body lying on one of the cold, metal tables, Toriel had covered it completely with a white sheet. You could've kissed her, you were so glad you didn't have to look at it outright... at least not right away. You took a shaky breath as your eyes roved over its shape. This was… doable. Maybe it was for the best that Toriel had taken the liberty of defrosting the body for you.

Speaking of which, there was a copious amount of water dripping from the table your body was lying on. The sound of it hitting the floor accompanied the steady drip of the one, leaky sink in the corner. You shuddered at the mental image of your own soggy, dead skin. This was going to be unpleasant. Still doable, though, or at least that was what you told yourself.

Papyrus, however, seemed utterly undisturbed by the fact that there was currently a dead body in the room. You weren't sure if it was scary or reassuring, how completely optimistic he was, even about this. Sans' old reservations about him learning necromancy crept back to the forefront of your mind.

"You see, human? You will be fine! With your knowledge of human healing powers, and Queen Toriel's healing magic, and my general greatness, we can't possibly fail! So, don't be scared, okay?" The skeleton's voice was noticeably softer at the end. He gave you a blindingly bright smile and rubbed your metacarpals with his thumb. You blinked, surprised; you'd assumed he was oblivious to your anxiety. You smiled sheepishly at him, feeling a little bit better already.

"Thanks, Paps." You looked back over at the human shape on the table and squared your shoulders. "Alright, let's get to work."

As it turned out, most of the preliminary work you had to do was tedious and didn't involve Papyrus or Toriel at all. The first item on the to-do list was to close up the fatal wound in your thigh. You wanted to get some blood into your body, but there was no point if it was all going to bleed out again through your severed femoral artery. You'd uncovered your left leg with trepidation, only to find that you were still wearing the jeans you'd died in. You weren't sure why that surprised you, but it was oddly startling. The clothes were completely soiled now, being that they were soaked in three-month-old blood. But that was fine by you; it wasn't like you ever wanted to wear them again, anyway.

After you got over that mild shock, you used a single talon to cut a straight line up the leg of your jeans. You peeled the wet pants away as if you were tearing off a band-aid. The sight of your blotchy, discolored skin sent your bones rattling. And that cut on your leg was much bigger and more daunting than you'd thought. It wasn't like you'd really had a chance to examine it before… you'd been a bit busy dying, and all. As you stared at it, you could almost feel the blade slicing cleanly into your thigh, could almost see the remorseful, tortured expression in Sans' eyes...

As soon as you were calm enough, you encouraged Toriel to try to heal your leg using her magic. She humored you, but, just like she'd told you when the two of you first met, she couldn't heal dead people. That left the task of sealing up your leg to you and your trusty, human medicine. Surgical sutures didn't care if the skin and arteries they were sewing together were alive or dead, though it was disturbingly difficult to keep the fine thread from ripping right through your soggy flesh. You tried not to think about it.

You'd never actually sewn anyone up before, let alone a dead person, so the sutures were messy and took a painfully long time to make. But, once they were complete, hooking yourself up to an IV was surprisingly easy. Papyrus and Toriel watched with a sort of morbid fascination as you hooked your body up to a bag of your own blood, one of eight that you'd been able to collect from yourself so far. The body took up three units just fine, but it was slow going trying to get it to take the fourth. By the time you hooked up the fifth bag, the body had reached some kind of equilibrium and simply wouldn't take any more. You didn't know if it had to do with the lack of a beating heart or if the excess water from being on ice was clogging up the arteries, but you'd gone as far as you could, at least for the moment. It was nowhere near the amount of blood a person needed to survive, but, hell, you didn't even know if the blood was going to help, anyway. All you knew was that it would've felt wrong not to at least try to simulate the conditions the body would be in if it were alive, before Papyrus went ahead and made it hop off the table.

… God, this was so fucked up. If it was anyone other than Papyrus, you would've pulled the plug on this already. But you couldn't help but to trust him with your life… no, your death. Maybe that was Sans warping your view of his brother, but you couldn't bring yourself to care.

The last thing you did was hook yourself up to a small, portable heart rate monitor. It clipped onto your finger and read out your oxygen level and pulse rate. Of course, at the moment, it was flashing and wailing one long, continuous beep. But you just turned the volume way down and tried not to let it bother you. As an afterthought, you relegated Endogeny to a different room, trying to ignore the sad puppy look they gave you when you walked out of their sight.

"Okay, Papyrus, do your thing." You stood up from where you'd been kneeling beside the table, backing away. Papyrus had been standing behind you, holding your laptop in one hand as he read through the translated version of the necromancy book one last time, as if he was cramming for an exam. The mental image didn't exactly inspire confidence. "Remember, don't do anything drastic. If you can just… I dunno, make its heart beat, that'd be super." He nodded, looking much more serious than usual. You hadn't seen him take off his gloves, but his hands were bare as he closed the laptop and set it aside, moving to stand over the body. His back was to you as you went to stand beside Toriel, who was watching silently from near the doorway. Papyrus looked over his shoulder at her, and she gave him a thumbs up. He grinned, his eyes crinkling at the corners, before turning back around.

As you watched Papyrus lean over the body, his shoulders hunched, you realized that you'd never actually _seen_ him work his magic. It set Sans off so much the first time that the both of you tended to stay away whenever he was doing freaky things with the dead animals. You were transfixed as you watched Papyrus run his hands over your body, never actually touching it, but hovering an inch above the white sheet. You thought you heard him murmuring something, but then Sans realized; it wasn't his voice, it was his magic, humming at a strange frequency. It reverberated in your chest… in your combined souls. An eerie, orange glow radiated from Papyrus' skull. Softly, at first, but growing brighter by the minute. The few feathers on the tips of your wings stood at attention, much like how hair would've stood up on your arms if you'd been human. You tore your eyes away to glance, nervously, over at Toriel, who looked stoic. She was clearly used to this.

You jumped nearly a foot in the air when the lights suddenly began to flicker. The humming magic dipped and swayed with the movement of Papyrus' hands. And Papyrus himself seemed so… so _unlike_ Papyrus. He'd always been an intense person, but this was a whole different kind of intensity. You could only see his back, but every inch of him was taut and focused. You almost wondered if this magic was doing something _to him_ , as well.

You almost called it off. Sans _wanted_ you to call it off, but… you hadn't come this far to call it quits just yet. You waited with baited breath as Papyrus' humming magic began to crescendo. Suddenly, there was a blinding flash of orange light. You brought your arm up to shield your eyes, but too late. It was over in a second; before you knew it, the light had dimmed and Papyrus was looking over his shoulder at you, grinning proudly.

It still wasn't _quite_ normal, though. Papyrus' eyes were still glowing orange, but it was more calming and steadier than before. That hum of magic was still there, but it was faint and seemed to beat in time with…

You froze. The heart rate monitor, which you'd been steadfastly ignoring as it pronounced your continued death, was now beeping erratically.

In a flash, you were standing beside your own body, picking up its limp hand and holding it carefully in your own. Sure enough, the monitor was going wild, broadcasting a staccato heartbeat that, ordinarily, would've probably indicated an incoming stroke or cardiac arrest.

As it was, it was the most beautiful thing you'd ever heard.

You pressed a single, boney finger to your body's wrist, revelling in the feel of blood pounding through its veins. It was both the strangest and most incredible thing you'd ever felt.

"Wowie! That was exciting! And also very tiring, heh…" You looked up at Papyrus, who was smiling, but sweating profusely.

"You are doing great, dear." Toriel came up beside him and placed a hand on his shoulder, a look of pride on her face. Even though she couldn't perform necromancy herself, you thought she probably felt responsible for teaching it to Papyrus.

The necromancer in question was not looking so great, however. His bones were rattling and his brow was furrowed in concentration. He looked like he was constipated… or just in pain.

 _Make him stop._ Sans demanded. For the first time in a long time, the two of you fought for control. You grappled desperately with each other for a brief moment before you were able to overpower him.

"W-wait! Paps, you're amazing... just hold on for a moment. I wanna try something." Papyrus said nothing, but nodded determinedly. You grabbed Toriel's arm and pulled her over to the other side of the table with you. She looked bewildered, until you threw back the sheet that had been covering your poorly-sutured leg. "Try healing it again. Just try." You said, eagerly. Toriel gave you a curious look before placing one hand over the wound. Her furry paw emitted a warm glow to accompany Papyrus' orange light. When she took the hand away, the skin underneath had miraculously sealed itself together, rendering the stitches useless.

With a gasp, Papyrus snapped. The humming cut off abruptly, along with the light in his eyes. The heart rate monitor flatlined again.

"Oh, d-drat!" Papyrus stumbled away from the table, still shaking. Sans surged up again with a protective fierceness, but you didn't fight him this time. You let him take control as he hurried to his brother's side.

"Paps! Bro, are you okay?" Sans gripped Papyrus' shoulders tightly, supporting him as he panted and hunched in on himself.

"Nyeh… heh… do not worry, brother! The Great Papyrus… is just fine!" Paps flashed Sans a smile. He did seem like he was recovering quickly; already, his bones had stopped rattling and he was standing up a little straighter. He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. "Whew! That was certainly something!"

Sans laughed incredulously and embraced his brother, pulling him in for a bone-crushing hug. "That was amazing, bro. I always knew you were the coolest."

"But of course!" Papyrus tried to strike a pose, struggling to look cool while being hugged by his much larger brother. Eventually he just gave in and wrapped his arms around Sans' shoulders. "I told you everything would be fine, didn't I?" Sans squeezed his eyes shut, fighting back the combined strength of his emotions and your own.

"Heh." He collected himself and pulled back, holding Papyrus out at arm's length. "Yeah, you did." The brothers simply beamed at each other for a moment, before Toriel interrupted with a murmur,

"Astonishing." Sans turned, still holding Papyrus' shoulders. Tori looked up, as though surprised that she'd spoken. She gestured to your body's still-exposed leg. "It is healed, and hasn't fallen apart yet. I cannot explain how… combining magic like that, it was something that was just not done back in my time." She smiled then, too, "This is very encouraging, Orion. Perhaps this may be possible, after all." Toriel's optimism bolstered your mood even more. The three of you (or, four, to be accurate) were all grinning like idiots. You felt like you were on top of the world, and nothing could go wrong.

Of course you just had to think that right as Frisk burst into the room, running as fast as their little body could carry them.

"Frisk! My child, you know you are not allowed to be down here when-" In a rare show of disobedience, Frisk ignored their adoptive mom. Instead, they ran straight for you and began to tug desperately on your robe.

"Kid?" The child whimpered in distress and pulled harder. Sans' smile dropped as he let go of papyrus, bending down to be closer to Frisk's height. "Kid… Frisk… what's wrong?" Frisk wouldn't look at you as they signed,

 **Surface. Fight.** Your happiness plummeted, and you were filled with cold fear in its place. Without another thought, you and Sans switched places (it was an unspoken agreement that you handled emergencies better) and you disappeared through a shortcut, leaving the human child and your two monster friends behind in the lab.

You appeared in Asgore's underground throne room and sprinted the rest of the way to the former barrier, your magic thumping in your bones like a heartbeat. You were so sure that, when you broke the surface, you were going to see humans slaughtering the monsters. So you were surprised to find Undyne and the Dog Guard, standing in a defensive line, blocking a swarm of fellow monsters in the middle of the road.

At least no one was physically fighting each other (yet), but tension was high. There was a lot of arguing going on, the raised voices all coalescing together by the time they reached you on top of the cliff. You headed down to the road slowly, nobody noticing you as you approached.

"They can't keep us trapped down there forever!"

"We might as well still be behind the barrier!"

"We should throw some of 'em down there with us, see how they like it!" Someone near you shouted, though you didn't see who. There were yells of agreement from the monsters. The crowd surged, pushing Undyne and her guard further down the road.

"Ngggha! Everyone needs to get back! Go home, you don't know what the hell you're talking about!" Undyne's booming voice rose above the rest, though her voice sounded strained and oddly high-pitched. You waded through the dissenting crowd, parting them easily with your large body. People scrambled to get out of your way, and the ones who didn't were pushed gently aside.

Your calm march from the back of the crowd to the front eventually caught everyone's attention. The monsters at the frontlines, who'd been testing the dogs as they snapped and growled at them to get back, stilled and turned to look at you. Even Undyne was quiet as you approached her. You hadn't exactly thought about how powerful your presence must've been, being a giant skeleton in the middle of mostly human-sized monsters. Besides, you were a stranger to all of these protesters, save for that one deer-like kid who'd been trying to steal from Gerson a couple weeks back. They stood near the back of the crowd, and began to whisper urgently to their neighbor when they caught sight of you.

Now that you were the center of attention, you didn't know what to do. You'd come here with the intent of stopping whatever fight was going on, but what could you say to these monsters who'd been given false hope of freedom, only to continue being imprisoned underground? Sans had no advice, either. He wouldn't have even interfered, if it were up to him.

"You should all listen to Undyne." Your low, rumbling voice carried over the silent crowd. "Just go home, and let her and Asgore handle negotiations with the humans." That sparked an outburst of anger.

"But they're not _doing_ anything!"

"It's been months, and nothing's changed!"

"Who the heck are _you_ , anyway?!" You ignored the last question, your face flushing a little.

"We all need to have patience. I know you're frustrated, but try to see it from the humans' perspectives. They're trying not to show it, but they're very afraid of us... We need to give them time to adjust." You felt like the biggest hypocrite in existence. Hadn't you just recently been arguing with Asgore that he needed to take action against the humans? That he should fight for justice? And now here you were, preaching meek tolerance to the people who were being taken advantage of. You felt that familiar guilt crawling up your back.

"How _much_ time?" A woman's voice asked, desperate, from the center of the crowd. Your chest ached.

"As much as they need. We need to show them compassion and acceptance, otherwise, how can we expect to receive any in return?" You were speaking out of your ass, if you were being honest. But it must've sounded pretty good, because the angry mob slowly deflated. They whispered amongst themselves, but the murmurings were much less tense now. "I know it's hard to see right now, but we _are_ making progress. The kinder we are to the humans, the more we commit to peace between our species, the more they'll trust us and begin to let us go free." You felt a little proud of yourself as you received nods from the crowd, the guilt slowly rising off of your shoulders.

A few monsters broke off from the group to trudge back underground. After that, more and more people began to leave, many of them glancing wistfully at the sky before retreating back through the cave entrance. You felt a deep sorrow in your bones as you watched them savor their last few moments aboveground before going home to their windowless prisons.

Moving against the flow of traffic were four monsters and one, tiny human. Asgore, Toriel, Papyrus, Endogeny, and Frisk made their way toward you, panting and sweating as though they'd run the whole way. Asgore alone looked like he hadn't exerted himself, and you wondered where he'd come from and why he wasn't on the surface when this was all going down. You didn't have time to ask before he put a giant paw on your shoulder and leaned in to say,

"Orion... thank you. I just caught the end of your speech, you did an excellent job defusing the situation. I am in your debt." You flushed and rubbed the back of your neck nervously.

"I just said whatever came to mind… s'not a big deal." Asgore fixed you with a thoughtful expression. He looked like he was about to say something when he was interrupted.

"HELLO?! Is no one else just a tiny bit CONCERNED about what just happened?!" Undyne yelled, slamming the butt of her glowing, blue spear on the ground. You looked around, but all of the protestors had trickled back into the Underground by now. Only the surface residents were still around to hear this, and even the dog guard was nervously backing away with their tails between their legs.

"Of course, Undyne, but I believe the situation has been resolved." Asgore rumbled, giving you one last, hearty pat on the shoulder. Undyne looked about ready to blow a fuse.

"IT'S. NOT! This'll happen again, and it'll _keep_ happening until SOMEONE DOES SOMETHING ABOUT THEM!" She thrust her spear toward one of the guard towers, then swung it around to point at you threateningly. You straightened your back and narrowed your eyes. "Everybody's been so busy helping YOU that no one gives a shit about what's going on around them! You're all hiding out in that _lab_ when you should be _paying attention to what's happening up here_!" Undyne rounded on Papyrus, who was looking distinctly uncomfortable with all the shouting. "PAPYRUS! You're a member of the ROYAL GUARD! I'M YOUR BOSS! You should be helping me, _preventing this kind of stuff from happening_ , not down in some basement, _playing around with dead bodies_!"

That was enough. Undyne could yell at you all she wanted, but you _weren't_ going to let her talk to Paps like that. Sans, especially, was enraged. You clenched your jaw and stepped toward her, your wings flaring out at your sides.

"Careful." You growled lowly. There was a brief moment where you thought she looked genuinely intimidated, before she bared her own teeth and turned back to you. Before she could say anything, though, Asgore stepped between the two of you.

"Stop this. Both of you." His piercing gaze held so much quiet authority that both you and Undyne were forced to back down. She huffed and crossed her arms, and you lowered your hackles and folded your wings back into place. Asgore turned to the fish woman first.

"Undyne, please go wait in my throne room. We have much to discuss." Undyne's jaw popped with the effort of not saying anything as she marched past you, her spear disintegrating as she went. Asgore then faced the small group behind you. Papyrus was unusually stiff and silent, Toriel was holding Frisk on her hip, and Endogeny must've gotten scared and run back home with the other dogs, because they were nowhere to be seen.

"The rest of you… I would like to speak to Orion alone, if I may." Cold dread washed over you; that couldn't mean anything good. Toriel's lips pursed as she nodded, taking ahold of Papyrus' hand.

"Come, Papyrus… why don't you help me make dinner?" Papyrus glanced at you, then Toriel, and nodded. Frisk waved at you glumly over their mom's shoulder as they were carried away. You waved back.

"Orion…" Asgore sighed as soon as the others were out of earshot. You gnashed your teeth nervously.

"Yes?" You felt very small when Asgore looked at you like that, even though the two of you were roughly the same height.

"I am very grateful for what you've done for us all today. You may not even know the full weight of your actions, but, had any monsters tried to cross the border, the results would have been catastrophic." Asgore pinched the bridge of his nose. You blinked; you'd been expecting to be reprimanded for almost losing your temper, not this.

"Oh… um, you're welcome." Now that emotions were beginning to die down, Sans felt composed enough to put in his two cents.

 _What you did back there, talking everyone down like that… that was pretty slick, kid._ Somehow, the praise from Sans felt even more meaningful to you than the compliment you'd received from the king of all monsters. You felt your face heat up, and you scuffed your foot on the ground as you avoided replying.

"In fact, I would like to ask if you would be willing to be an ambassador for our kind." If you'd been drinking anything, you would've spit it out. As it was, you reeled back, your eye sockets stretched wide. Where the hell had _that_ come from?

"What? Me?! Um, isn't Frisk already the ambassador? Wouldn't want to take the kid's job." You laughed nervously.

"Yes, and, while Frisk does their best, I believe it would be helpful to have an adult at the position, too, don't you think?" Asgore had a twinkle in his eye. You felt a little light-headed.

 _Sans?_ You asked, and he gave you a mental shrug.

 _What? He's askin' you, not me. You know I wouldn't do it… too much work. But, hey, it's your call._ You were amazed that he was able to distance himself from the responsibility of making a decision, considering the two of you _shared a damn body._ Asgore seemed to notice that you were short-circuiting, and continued,

"Perhaps I should explain. I am offering you this position because, frankly, I need the help of a human. Someone who the other humans will listen to and respect, because, unfortunately, we are not quite at the point yet where they respect us on our own."

"But I'm _not_ human." You were quick to point out. "Or at least, the other humans aren't gonna see me as one! When they look at me, they'll only see a monster." Asgore held up a finger, so you waited.

"True. However… have you thought yet about what you are going to do after you are separated? I assume the monster soul, Sans, will want to stay here with his brother, but what about you? The human?" _That_ left you dumbfounded. You… you really didn't know. You wanted to go see your family again, but what then? Just… get on with your life? The life that the soulless version of you had royally fucked up? God, there were so many people you'd cut from your life, so many burned bridges… would you try to make amends? Go back to med school? Every question opened up a whole new can of worms, and it was just too much to think about right then and there. Still, Asgore continued talking.

"And, even if you cannot negotiate with the humans yet, there are still other things you could do in the interim. You have inside knowledge on human ways and customs which we are unfamiliar with. You were the one who informed me about the gold, after all."

"Yeah, and you didn't do anything with the information." You murmured, your eyes downcast.

"Correct, but it was good information to have, regardless." Asgore was undeterred by your reluctance, but even he seemed to realize that this was too much for you to decide right now. "Tell you what, how about you just think on it? The offer will always be open." You dipped your head gratefully, your shoulders slumping.

"Thank you. I will." Asgore smiled softly.

"Good." He clasped you on the shoulder and began to walk away. But, before he even took two steps, he turned back around, "Oh, and Orion… do not let what Undyne said bother you. I personally assigned Alphys to work on your… situation, and I do not mind if Papyrus wants to help you in his free time. Tori, of course, is free to do whatever she wishes…" He trailed off, and you nodded.

"Thank you." You said again, sounding a bit like a broken record. With that, Asgore finally left you, standing alone in the middle of the dirt road.

What the hell were you going to do now? Not just right at that moment, but in the not-so-distant future when you and Sans were two separate people again. Toriel had said herself that the odds of you successfully getting back into your body were getting better and better by the day, and she was the most skeptical of all your monster friends. You'd have to figure out _some_ idea of what you wanted to do once you were alive and kicking again.

 _Why not just figure that out once we get there?_ Sans suggested, but it didn't help your anxiety.

 _We're not going to be '_ we _' for much longer, Sans._ You pointed out pragmatically, but he gasped in mock offense.

 _Ouch. Really? I don't think so. Besides, you promised you'd help me out with that Gaster stuff, even after we were separated. Not gonna go back on your word, are you?_ Right, you'd forgotten about that, for a moment. The thought of being tied down by a promise was actually quite soothing to you. At least you had some excuse to visit once in a while when you were human again. _And anyway… I, uh, don't think Paps would want you to leave. And Tori would throw a fit if you never came around for dinner… even the kiddo's gettin' attached to you._

 _Well… maybe, I guess. But… you're the one who really belongs with them, you know? And I… I've done such horrible things to them all. That kid, especially, went through hell because of me. Maybe… it would be better if I didn't stay._ Sans became fiercely emotional as you finished; you were shocked by the force of it.

 _You're not leaving, okay? Just… you're just not. You should take the damn ambassador job if that's what it'll take to get you to stay._ You flinched, a little frightened by Sans' sudden anger. You didn't know how to react to it, so you simply stood there in the middle of the road as the sky began to darken with the setting sun.

Eventually, Sans sighed and broke the silence in your mind, _Shit, sorry. I just think we should stick together, is all. You're… the only one who knows. Like, really_ knows _everything that's happened. Maybe it's selfish, but I don't want to deal with it all alone once we're apart._ You hummed, your shoulders slumping.

 _Yeah, me either._ After all, you were a part of this world now; you couldn't just leave. There was no getting out, like it or not. And, honestly, you were kind of glad.

 _Okay. Well… good._ Abruptly, both of you realized that you were still standing in the road, staring at nothing, neither of you really controlling the body. Your head snapped up, awareness rushing to your limbs. _Dinner's probably gonna be ready soon. Should get over to Tori's place._ Sans suggested helpfully, and you nodded, beginning to walk over to the only house with all of its lights still on.

In the distance, far above you, a guard watched from his tower, never tearing his eyes away until the door shut behind you.


	14. The Third Soul

After the almost-riot, things were different in the Underground. Everyone was tense; people didn't stop on the streets of New Home to talk to eachother anymore. It was like they were waiting for something to happen, and were anticipating it being catastrophic.

It was… odd, to think that your own words could have such an impact on people. Anyone who hadn't been part of the mob heard every detail about it soon after. Word of mouth traveled quickly in the Underground. Monsters didn't seem to know what to think of you; whether you were right or wrong, heroic or foolish. Either way, every account of the event was blown way out of proportion. No one seemed to know your name, at least, which was a small blessing.

Not that you heard about any of this firsthand. You never passed through New Home, anyway; your shortcuts gave you no reason to. You heard about all of this through your friends. Mainly through Asgore, who seemed intent on keeping you abreast with current events. At first, you thought he might've just been talking to you more because he was lonely. After all, with his ex-wife hardly speaking to him and Undyne giving him the cold shoulder after the riot incident, the guy didn't really have anyone else to talk to. But, after a while, you began to suspect that he had ulterior motives. After all, you still hadn't given him an answer about that ambassador thing.

But you had too much on your plate right now to be worrying about that. When Sans wasn't busy helping Alphys work out the kinks in the DTEM, you, Papyrus, and Toriel were struggling to revive your human body. Papyrus could get your heart beating well enough, but, no matter how much of your own blood you pumped into the body, the heartbeat faded as soon as Papyrus became too exhausted to keep it running. You tried CPR and the defibrillator, but all you got for your efforts were some nasty looking burns on the body's chest. Sure, Papyrus was getting stronger each time he raised the body from the dead, but he would never be able to keep your heart beating by himself forever. And you wouldn't want to put that kind of strain on him, anyway.

Toriel was having a little more luck using magical methods of healing. While Papyrus kept the body's heart beating, she was able to at least detect areas of damage, if not fix them. She had the ability to breathe life into certain tissues, which would have been fascinating to study under a microscope if you had the equipment and the time. But, whatever progress she made fixing your collapsed internal organs was almost always undone as soon as Papyrus relinquished control. The only thing she'd been able to heal permanently was the cut on your leg, which remained sealed shut even after you took out the sutures.

Yesterday, when Papyrus nearly passed out trying to buy Toriel just one more minute of time to heal your broken body, you decided the three of you needed to take a day off. Papyrus had somehow gotten it in his head that it was _his_ job to heal you, and the more time that took, the more impatient he became. You and Sans were not the least bit interested in letting him sacrifice himself for this, so, breaks were mandatory, starting now.

You were planning on spending your day in the passenger's seat, letting Sans help Alphys work out the bugs in the machine, when someone called out to you just as you were walking out of your fake-house.

"Orion! A word, please?" You looked to your right and barely kept from sighing when you saw Asgore waving you over from his front porch. It wasn't that you didn't like talking to him, it was just… you were kind of looking forward to slipping into the back of your mind and letting Sans take control for the rest of the day. You were so tired…

"Yeah, sure." You shuffled over to his house, back hunched, and murmured your thanks as he held the door open for you. He didn't even ask before he started to make you tea, and you responded likewise by settling yourself on your usual chair at the dining room table. By now, this had become a normal routine.

There was something abnormal today, though. Two groups of papers, stacked neatly in the middle of the table. You were comfortable enough with Asgore that you didn't worry about being rude when you reached over with your long arms and plucked one from its stack.

"'Official Monster Census…'" You read out loud, your brow furrowed.

"Yes, that is what I wanted to talk to you about." Asgore said as he placed a cup of tea in front of you. You looked up at him curiously, and saw that he was smiling. He sat down across from you, and you curled your talons and fingers around the cup, leaching as much warmth from it as you could. "I have come to an agreement with the humans. They have said that, if I take a count of every monster in the Underground, they will let us take visits to the nearby human village in small groups! Isn't that exciting?" You blinked, studying Asgore's expression. He seemed genuinely excited about this, but you were skeptical.

"I dunno, Asgore… this seems like a bit more than a headcount. Are you really gonna make every single monster fill this out?" You squinted at the census form. There were some pretty weird questions on there… most of them benign (why would the humans need to know how many legs each monster has?) but one of them stuck out to you as concerning. "There's a question on here asking them to 'describe their magical abilities'... I didn't even think the humans knew we _had_ magic." You mused, frowning at the question.

"They do. Well, I don't believe they told the… oh, what term did they use… the 'general public', but it would have been impossible to explain how we had been trapped in the mountain without telling them about magic. We did not even realize that they had forgotten about magic, when we first emerged." Asgore explained, but you weren't reassured.

"So you're fine with this? The humans having a file for every monster, knowing everything they're capable of?" Asgore frowned at you over his cup of tea.

"Orion, we are not trying to hide anything. You said it yourself - we need to show the humans that we accept and trust them, or else we will not receive their trust in return."

"Yeah, well I made all that crap up!" Sans, who had been quiet until this point, warned you to calm down. You conceded, bowing your head to put your nose directly in line with the cloud of steam rising from your untouched drink. "I just wish people would stop bringing it up." You muttered, with much less heat this time.

"But it was good advice." Asgore said, gently. "I have been negotiating with the humans endlessly for months now. This is the first progress that has been made since the creation of the houses we are sitting in right now. I think a little transparency is a small price to pay for another step toward freedom, don't you?" You took one hand off of your cup to rub at your forehead.

"I suppose." Asgore brightened up considerably.

"Besides, these 'field trips', of sorts, will be an excellent way to boost morale. Once they see how beautiful the surface is, everyone will have hope again. I am sure of it." He seemed so confident, you couldn't help but to feel a little bit of hope yourself. It would be nice, to be able to show your friends all of the great sights the surface had to offer. Maybe one day, you could even show Sans your hometown. You didn't know why, but that made you feel warm inside.

 _Technically, I've already seen your house and your school. And I see those places all the time in your dreams._ Sans pointed out, and you took a moment to reflect on how strange it was that a statement like that didn't creep you out anymore.

 _Yeah, but it'd be fun to really_ show _you. Like, a tour._ To Asgore, you said, "How will that work, then? Will you just pick random monsters to take trips to town?" The King slid the second stack of papers over to you, which you'd all but forgotten about in the midst of your conversation.

"No, any monster who wishes to go will have to apply for it, and the humans will choose who can go and who must stay behind." You set down the census and, in turn, picked up one of the application sheets… or, more like application packets, because each one was at least a few pages thick. As you thumbed through it, you were baffled by the amount of detail the humans wanted. About the monster's pasts, their physical attributes… everything imaginable.

"Wow. This is… really rigorous, huh?"

"They want this to go smoothly, just as we do. We want to make a good impression on the local humans, so any monster who is too intimidating or who might react badly to all the attention would be better off staying behind, at least for this first trip."

"Well, guess I'm out of the question, then." You joked with a half-grin. You were quite sure you would fall under the "too intimidating" category. That was fine; neither you nor Sans really wanted to be pioneers in this first trip out of the camp, anyway. For Sans, it was too much work and responsibility, and for you… well, you just didn't feel too comfortable being gawked at by a bunch of humans.

"Actually, I was hoping you would consider applying." Asgore said casually. You snorted incredulously.

"I'll never get accepted! I'm too… just too… much." You blushed as you fumbled with your words, flapping your wings a little just to emphasize your point.

"There is no harm in trying, Orion!" Asgore chided you, sounding suspiciously optimistic. "And besides, I have already spoken to Papyrus about this, and he is very eager to apply. You would want to go with him if he was approved, would you not?" That settled it for Sans, and you reluctantly agreed. You narrowed your eyes at the King and tucked the application packet closer to your chest.

"Fine. I'll try." Asgore reached over and picked up your discarded census form, handing it back to you.

"You will want one of these, too." You opened your mouth to argue, but you couldn't, really. The humans knew you lived on the surface; they saw you everyday. It'd be very obvious and suspicious if you didn't fill out the census. Plus, if you were going to apply for this field trip thing, you might as well do the damn census form, too.

You did, however, think of one caveat. "I'll need two. We should fill one out for Orion and one for Sans. That way, when we separate, it won't look weird when Sans suddenly shows up out of nowhere." It would still look weird when Orion vanished into thin air, but it seemed that was going to be unavoidable at this point. At least this was one thing you could prepare for.

Wordlessly, Asgore picked up another census form from the stack and held the two sheets of paper out to you. You snatched them from him, still not happy about all of this paperwork you had to fill out. Things had been a lot simpler when you just had to hide out in the barn. Now you were pretending to be a monster, complete with a fake name and a fake house. It was all piling up, getting more and more complicated by the day. And you'd thought it had been difficult to maintain all of your lies back when you lived with the skeleton brothers in the Underground… that was nothing compared to this. And the kicker was - it was never going to stop. Even if you did manage to get back into your human body, there would be some things that you could just never tell anyone. You'd have to lie for the rest of your life.

You could kind of see, now, why Sans was so desperate for you to stay. At least you wouldn't have to lie to each other, after all this was over. There was some comfort in that.

Asgore snapped you out of your thoughts by straightening another stack of census papers on the table.

"Before you leave, would you take these next door to the dogs for me, please? They may need some help filling them out, and I really need to get over to New Home to distribute these to the citizens there." You didn't like the look of triumph on his face as you snatched those papers from him, too. You narrowed your eyes and pointed a finger at him threateningly.

"This doesn't mean I'm working for you!" You warned him, and he chuckled.

"Of course not. This is merely a favor between friends." Sans was openly laughing at you as you harrumphed, gathering up all of your new homework in your arms.

"'Course. Friends." With that, you left Asgore's house, leaving your untouched tea to cool on the table.

You headed straight to the dogs' house, beginning the long, arduous process of explaining the census to them. It didn't help that three out of the six dogs were nonverbal, and one of the others was all but blind. You ended up sitting down with Dogeressa and Dogamy and filling out all six forms for them, directing your questions to them whenever you weren't sure on something.

After that was done and over with, you had to fill out your own forms. You sat in your empty house, preferring to settle down in the middle of the living room floor where there was the greatest amount of space to spread your wings. Endogeny had followed you from their house to yours, and decided to lay their giant, dripping body right on your feet as you settled the paperwork on your lap.

Many of the questions, while they would have been no-brainers for normal people, were frustratingly difficult for you to answer. Sans insisted on listing Papyrus as Orion's brother, but he was already marked down as his brother on Sans' sheet. So that would've meant you'd have to list Orion as Sans' sibling, and vice versa, which would've just been weird. You ended up compromising by saying that Papyrus and Sans were full brothers, and Orion was their half-sibling. And then that brought up the question of parents.

 _Do you… know who your parents are?_ You asked hesitantly, your pen hovering over Sans' census sheet.

 _Nope. I mean, I have a pretty good guess who my dad is, now that…_ You grimaced, scribbling down a quick "N/A" over the "parents" section.

 _We don't know that for sure. He could be your weird, science-uncle, or something._ Sans rumbled noncommittally. You clenched your teeth, then looked up from the papers and set your pen down resolutely.

"How is it possible… that you don't remember your parents? I mean, I know you took care of Paps, but someone had to have taken care of you when you were a baby, too… right?" You spoke out loud this time, and Endogeny raised their head to look at you. Sans felt… resigned. It was as though he knew you were going to ask that question, eventually.

 _I just don't remember, I don't know how else to explain it. All I ever remember is takin' care of my bro… nothing before then._ You hummed contemplatively.

"How old were you?" Sans shrugged.

 _Dunno. Paps and I don't… technically know our birthdays. But I made one up for him, just so he'd have one... y'know? Didn't want him to feel different._ Both of you went quiet for a moment. You were only just beginning to grasp how rough their childhood must've been. If you'd woken up one day with your memories wiped and a baby brother in your arms… well, you didn't know what you'd do. But you were willing to bet you wouldn't have been as selfless as Sans. He seemed to misinterpret your awe as pity, and broke the silence abruptly,

 _Look, it wasn't as bad as you're thinking. Gerson wasn't the only nice person we came across… I had a lot of help._ You felt that he was getting uncomfortable, so you dropped the subject. You picked your pen back up and continued filling out the paperwork, a companionable silence falling between the two of you.

The rest of the questions went by fairly smoothly. You and Sans unanimously agreed to lie about your ability to teleport, and just ended up leaving all of the questions about magic blank. You'd have to remember to tell Papyrus to lie on his own form, too; you figured necromancy would go over just about as well with humans nowadays as it did with humans in the past. And, knowing Papyrus, it wouldn't even occur to him to lie on an official document.

Just as you were putting the final signatures on your papers, a knock came from your front door. Several knocks, in fact; the visitor was very enthusiastic. You jumped at the sound, a little frightened by it. Who would possibly be looking for you at your fake house? Humans? You held your breath as you stood up from the floor, displacing the dog amalgamation that had been sleeping on your feet. With a sense of trepidation, you opened the door.

There, to your relief, stood Papyrus and Frisk.

"Aha! I told you they would be here, tiny human! The Great Papyrus is never wrong!" Papyrus puffed out his armoured chest. He was wearing his full suit of armour, including the helmet. You didn't really like it obscuring his face (Or was that Sans? You weren't sure) so, feeling bold, you reached out and plucked it from his head. Papyrus looked scandalized, and Frisk brought both hands to their mouth in an unsuccessful attempt to mask their giggles.

"Brother!? How dare you disrobe me!" He made to snatch the helmet back, but you jerked it up out of his reach just in time. "I'll have you know I have just come back from very important Royal Guard business, and I," Papyrus leapt up, his fingers just grazing his precious helmet.

"Need," He put a hand on your shoulder, trying to use you as leverage to reach the prize.

" _That,"_ Frisk was openly laughing now, clutching their stomach in mirth.

" _BACK!"_ Finally, you took pity on Papyrus and lowered your arm slightly. He snatched the helmet back from you with a triumphant shout. Instead of putting it back on his head, though, he tucked it under his arm, brushing a thumb over its surface with a frown. "I just polished this, you know!" He huffed, but you thought you saw the corners of his mouth twitch as though he was holding back a smile. You chuckled, your eyes crinkling at the corners.

"I thought you were never wrong, Paps." He looked at you, confused.

"But I am not! The tiny human can attest!" Papyrus pointed down at Frisk, who nodded solemnly.

"But you just were! You called me 'brother,' and I'm not Sans." You pointed out, and Papyrus frowned. It was rare for him to get that wrong. Unprecedented, even; you couldn't remember a time when he'd ever mistaken you for Sans, or Sans for you.

"Huh! Well, you were doing a very good impersonation of him, human!" Papyrus seemed undisturbed, so you decided not to worry about it.

"What kind of Royal Guard business were you up to?" You changed the subject, the wood of the doorframe creaking as you leaned your weight into it. After the riot incident, you were worried that Undyne would start working Papyrus harder than usual. That didn't seem to be the case, however, you still felt like there was something… off about Papyrus after that. You couldn't put your finger on it, and neither could Sans. But you figured it couldn't hurt to keep tabs on him, anyway.

"I was helping Asgore distribute papers! I finished handing out my papers even faster than Undyne, because I wanted to be here to help Frisk give you their gift!"

"Huh? Gift?" You barely registered what was happening before Frisk grabbed your hand, tugging you away from the doorframe and down into the road. You let them pull you along, not caring that your front door was left ajar. What kind of gift could the kid want to give you? A drawing, or something? Wasn't that the kind of thing kids gave to people?

Frisk led you to the middle of the road, right in front of the house they shared with Toriel, before stopping abruptly. They let go of you and held out their hands, palms facing forward. You stopped obediently, head tilting curiously. Frisk dashed into their own house, feet thumping loudly on the front porch steps.

"Wait! Human! It is too big for you to carry alone, remember?!" Papyrus, who'd been following behind you, ran after Frisk. Now you were thoroughly confused; what sort of gift was too heavy for the kid to carry? It wasn't like they could've gone out shopping for a present for you, so whatever it was had to have been homemade. Or maybe they asked for it in the last supply drop-

 _Have I ever told you that you think too much?_ Sans interrupted, and you stopped your line of thought sheepishly. _Relax… you don't have to try to anticipate every single thing. Just enjoy it as it comes._ Perhaps Sans had a point there. You let your shoulders fall, releasing the tension you usually held in your neck. You found yourself slumping a little farther forward. It did feel kind of nice, though you were sure that, when you weren't thinking about it, you'd go right back to tensing up.

Before long, you began to hear banging and shouting coming from Frisk's house. The shouting was clearly coming from Papyrus, and, by the tone of his voice, you figured the banging was mostly Frisk's doing. Interested, you craned your neck, trying to get a look at what they were fighting to bring out to you.

"Need any help in there?" You yelled, your mouth twitching up into a grin. Surprisingly, Toriel's soothing voice called back,

"No thank you, dear. Frisk and Papyrus simply need to turn it to the left a little more."

"Oooooh! Thank you, Your Majesty!" Papyrus exclaimed, and you snorted in laughter. You imagined Toriel sitting in the dining room, simply watching as the kid and the skeleton struggled.

The first thing you saw emerge from the house was Papyrus' back. He was carrying one end of… something. It quickly became apparent that the reason Frisk couldn't carry it alone was not because it was too heavy, but because it was simply too long. In fact, by the time it was all the way out of the house and you could see Frisk holding up the other end, it was clear that it was actually quite light. It was made of some kind of blue tarp, cut into a strange, oblong shape and reinforced with thin, steel rods. As Papyrus and Frisk got closer, you noticed that there were actually two tarps; they were stacked on top of each other like mirror images.

Toriel emerged from the house next, leaning against the doorframe with a fond smile on her face. You raised your brows at her questioningly, but she shook her head. You and Sans had no idea what was going on.

"Ta-da!" Papyrus exclaimed in a singsong voice as he and Frisk set the tarps on the ground in front of you. The kid spread their arms wide, beaming at you as though they'd just given you the best gift in the world.

"Um…" You examined the strangely-shaped apparatus at your feet, still at a loss.

 **They're wings!** Frisk signed, their enthusiasm untainted by your confusion. Now that they mentioned it, the size and shape _was_ oddly familiar…

"What, for me?!" Your eye sockets widened. You stretched out one of your bare, vestigial wings and, sure enough, the tarps looked to be about the length of your wingspan. You thought you could see where this was going, and…

There was no way this was going to work.

 _Aw, why not?_ Sans asked, sounding amused by all of this. Frisk excitedly picked one of the wing parts off of the ground and held it up against your outstretched limb. When they couldn't reach up high enough, they beckoned Toriel over from the house.

 _It won't hold._ You said while, outwardly, you were silent. Toriel came over to help while Papyrus took the reinforced tarp from Frisk.

"Look, Orion! The fabric goes over your bones, like this, and then you can fly with them! Isn't that neat-o?!" He pushed the apparatus up against your wings, and you couldn't help but to flinch. You weren't used to people touching you there. It felt odd, even though it was about as invasive as someone poking you in the arm. Papyrus didn't seem bothered, though, and simply moved with you.

 _Even if it doesn't fall off or tear, we won't be able to get enough lift to actually fly._ You reasoned to Sans. Toriel approached, brandishing duct tape and a coil of thin rope.

 **It was my idea!** Frisk signed proudly while they watched, far too short to be able to help attach the contraption to your wing.

"They have been working on it for… oh, it has to have been nearly a month, now. I think they started drawing the design shortly after you came to us, isn't that right, Frisk?" The kid nodded eagerly, bouncing on their heels. You were surprised to hear that they thought it out so thoroughly… that was quite the dedication, coming from a kid. It was impressive, too, that everyone had been able to keep it a secret from you for so long. You barely held back from wincing as Toriel tied a rope around your bone, pulling it a little too tight for comfort.

 _This'll be disappointing for Frisk, when it does fail._ Too soon, Toriel and Papyrus were done attaching the first wing part. You blinked at it, tilting it back and forth like a rudder as you flexed your shoulder muscles. That was about the extent of the control you had over the device, since the steel rods that supported it kept it from bending at all.

"The other wing, please, Orion." Toriel asked you in a cheery voice. Numbly, you complied, stretching out your second wing so that Papyrus could hold the second half in place. You ignored Toriel as she began to lecture you about safety precautions, looking up at the sky instead. It was a mostly clear day, with only a few wisps of clouds against a blue sky. The sun shown bright directly overhead, and a cool breeze brushed against your spine. You shivered even though, as a skeleton, you didn't get cold.

 _You're scared!_ Sans proclaimed triumphantly. You hadn't realized he'd been psychoanalyzing you, and felt a flash of annoyance when he was right. _You're scared of heights, that's why you're so against this… right?_

 _So what if I am?_ You shot back defensively. _Heights are dangerous. A lot of people are scared of them._

 _Sure, but not as scared as you._ You gnashed your teeth when he was right yet again. It was true… you hadn't been that afraid of heights before, but falling down that hole into the Underground seemed to have given you a new phobia. You were _not_ an ideal candidate for flying. Why did no one clear this with you before springing it on you like this?! Now, if you refused, you'd be crushing a child's dreams. They spent _a whole month_ making these wings specifically for you. Plus, Papyrus and Toriel were almost finished attaching them. You'd be an asshole if you spoke up now, making them untie all of those knots…

 _Hey._ Sans' tone of voice was all it took to calm the panic in your mind down to a quiet simmer. _It won't be so bad. Why don't I take the wheel? Then, if we fall or I feel like I'm losing control, I can just take us through a shortcut. Safe and sound._

 _There are shortcuts in the air?_ You asked in a quiet voice.

 _Uh huh. They're all over the place… we just only ever bother with the ones on the ground._ You paused, considering this option.

 _Alright, I guess._ You stepped back mentally, letting Sans take the reins for the first time since you woke up this morning. It said something about the trust you'd built with him that you, a self-proclaimed control freak, would feel safer letting him take control in this perilous situation, but you didn't have much time to reflect on it before Papyrus and Toriel were done fitting you with your second wing.

"OKAY! Human! Are you ready?!" Paps asked excitedly, unaware that he'd gotten it wrong again. Sans didn't point it out, but instead rotated both wings experimentally. It was awkward, being unable to collapse either wing, but he figured it would do.

"Ready." He grinned at his brother, who jumped back to give you some space. Sans flapped the wings once, getting a feel for how powerful they were. He tried to do some quick calculations in his head to judge if this would even work at all, but couldn't confirm or deny anything without specific measurements.

Before throwing all caution to the wind, Sans looked over at Frisk. The kid stood hand in hand with their mother on the side of the road, their eyes bright as they stared at you and Sans eagerly.

"Thanks, kid." Sans winked at them, waiting for the child to smile back at him before taking off at a run down the road.

Sans rarely ran for any reason, but it came much easier in this body than it ever had in his own. His bare feet thudded rhythmically against the dirt as he sprinted, hunched over so that his wings were parallel to the ground. He'd never flown before, obviously, but having an understanding of fluid dynamics helped him know what to do. You clung to your metaphorical seat as Sans beat his wings powerfully, stirring up a huge cloud of dust in his wake.

Just when you were about to suggest that it wasn't working, you felt your feet lifting off of the ground. Sans laughed out loud as he generated enough lift to rise upward, just in time for him to run out of runway. The end of the road marked a sharp decline in the landscape. Not enough to be considered a cliff, but still plenty steep enough to make you feel abruptly dizzy as the ground dropped out from under you.

 _This is fucking insane. You're fucking insane!_ You yelled, your tone shrill with fear, as Sans continued to gain altitude. He was well above the treetops, now, and clear to fly over the thick forest that covered most of the monster encampment. Sans laughed again gleefully.

"This is amazing!" He shouted. You didn't think you'd ever seen him this happy before. Buried beneath your own crippling fear, you thought you felt a little bit of the elated wonderment radiating from his soul. You didn't understand it; to you, this whole experience was just an accident waiting to happen.

"Jesus christ, kid… lighten up! Look around!" Sans finally stopped climbing upward and simply glided over the trees, maintaining his height with the occasional flap of his wings. Now that the ride was significantly less bumpy, you felt a little bit calmer. You did as you were told and, instead of worrying about how dead you were about to be, you focused instead on the view.

It was, admittedly, pretty nice. Breathtaking, actually. In front of you spanned the entire north side of the mountain. The landscape sloped gently downward, opening up in front of you so that you could see all the way to the horizon. It was mid-October, which meant that fall colors were in their prime. The treetops were a collage of reds, oranges, and yellows. The mural was broken only by Carter Lake, which shimmered on the horizon like a beacon. Even the smattering of skyscrapers that loomed in Ebott City seemed only to add to the picturesque view. You were sucked in by the magnificent sight, momentarily forgetting your fear of heights.

Unfortunately, as you continued north, the ever-present guard towers started to creep closer. Sans reluctantly tilted his wings, beginning to bank gently to the left as he turned away from the spectacular view. The movement brought you back to reality.

 _Okay, maybe this isn't so bad._ You admitted, and Sans chuckled. He felt light-hearted for the first time in a long time, and you were beginning to feel it with him. As you turned around, you began to feel the breeze against your face. Sans took a deep, refreshing breath.

 _It's all so… big._ Sans said, and you had to agree. The open sky and the endless air beneath your wings felt so freeing, and _you_ hadn't even been trapped underground all your life. You couldn't imagine how it felt for Sans.

Well, yes, actually… you could. Sans was openly in awe of the experience. You heard every thought that he had, felt every emotion. For once, he felt really alive; not shadowed by the constant threat of another reset. Another disappointment. Everything was new and _fresh_.

Once Sans had turned to face the monster camp again, the two of you looked upon the row of twelve houses with a sense of fondness. Sans scanned the road and was quick to find his friends standing in the middle of it. He could hear Papyrus whooping in triumph far below, and you laughed at the sight of Frisk sitting on Toriel's shoulders, craning their little neck to watch the path of your flight. You felt so much _love_ for these people - _both_ of you did - and all of the things you were feeling at that moment coalesced into something indescribable. Something greater than the sum of its parts…

And then, something very strange happened.

The constant beat of your souls stuttered, and suddenly, _you didn't know who you were anymore._ For one brief, split second, you were not the human or the monster. You were just… _Orion._

All of those profound emotions you'd been feeling just a moment ago came crashing down. You searched frantically for the other person in your head. One of them had to be there, right? You tried to call out, but you didn't know whose name to call. Which one were you? Which was was missing?

You felt a deep, soul-consuming panic, and _wailed._

Suddenly, as quickly as it had happened, it stopped. The desperate, animalistic noise you'd made seemed to shock you out of whatever state you'd been in, and you were back to being two separate beings again. You, _the human_ , were abruptly thrust into the driver's seat, and found yourself falling through the air _far_ too quickly.

In your confusion, you thought for a moment that you were falling down the hole into the Underground again. You twisted wildly in the air, looking for whoever had pushed you.

 _LOOK OUT!_ Sans shouted at you, and then you remembered. You had wings. You looked down and saw the treetops rushing toward you at an alarming rate. Sending up a silent prayer, you closed your eyes and brought your arms up to shield your face-

CRASH!

CLUNK!

THUMP!

 _SNAP!_


	15. Ex Nihilo

You groaned.

Your first thought was that everything _ached._ You tried to push yourself to your feet, but found that you weren't actually lying on anything. Your efforts only caused a lot of loud rustling and snapping.

 _We're in a tree._ Sans figured it out before you did. Your eyes finally focused and, sure enough, you were hanging a few meters off the ground, tangled in the branches of at least two different trees. You scanned your body, searching for the source of the pain you felt, and found it in the awkward angle of your right wing. The makeshift device that Frisk had made for you was most certainly broken, and your bones might've met the same fate. Instinctively, you tried to pull the injured limb closer to your body, and gasped at the intense, stabbing pain your efforts caused.

 _Don't. Just wait for the others to find us._ Sans suggested hurriedly, and you moaned in agreement, forcing yourself to go limp as you hung helplessly in the trees.

 _What the fuck happened?!_ You asked as soon as you felt coherent enough to form sentences.

 _I... don't know._ Sans said, helpfully.

 _It was… I… you felt that too, right?!_ Hysteria was beginning to set in, and Sans was no better this time.

 _I… it just… yeah... I don't know!_ Your breaths came in harsh gasps, which shook the branches around you. _Look… look. We gotta… we gotta just forget about it for now, okay? We're back to normal now, and we're in a fucking tree. We got bigger problems, right?_ He asked you, desperate for confirmation.

"Yeah… yeah, we're normal now. Bigger problems. Okay." You muttered out loud, forcing yourself to take deeper breaths. The last thing you wanted to do was start hyperventilating while stuck in a damn tree with a possibly-broken wing.

No sooner had that thought entered your mind than you heard someone calling your name.

"ORION!" Papyrus' voice filled you with hope, but hearing that name soured it for you. For the first time, you didn't like having a combined name for both you and Sans. It felt like it had more meaning, now.

"Here." You croaked, quieter than you would've liked. You coughed, and tried again, "HERE!" Suddenly, Papyrus crashed into view, stopping just below your tree. "LOOK UP!" You called, and he obeyed.

"OH NO! QUEEN TORIEL! HUMAN! I FOUND THEM!" Papyrus immediately began stripping, pulling off his gloves and heavy outer armour. He was left in only a white t-shirt and a pair of slacks. They were the plainest clothes either you or Sans had ever seen him in.

As soon as his load was lighter, Papyrus began to climb one of the trees you were stuck in. Sans wanted to protest, but you remained quiet. Paps was surprisingly nimble, reaching you before Toriel and Frisk even arrived.

As soon as she saw your predicament, Toriel's hand flew to her mouth. At first, you thought she was gasping in horror, but the corners of her mouth were turned up.

"IT'S NOT FUNNY!" You shouted down to her indignantly. In fact, it was quite painful, but you supposed you could forgive her for laughing at a skeleton stuck in a tree. Maybe.

"Of course not, dear!" Toriel called up to you, and you scoffed. You were quickly distracted from the conversation by a sharp pain as Papyrus touched your injured wing.

"GAH!" You yelped and tried, in vain, to pull away from him.

"Oh gosh! I'm sorry!" Papyrus clenched his jaw, and you gritted your teeth.

"S'okay… just, there's somethin' wrong with that wing." You spoke through your teeth. Papyrus leaned over from the branch he was perched on to examine the bone. He frowned, a bead of sweat forming on his brow.

"Um… I'm sorry, I would heal it, but… we should straighten it out first! Or else it'll heal wrong, right Queen Toriel?" Papyrus asked the Queen below, who looked much more solemn now that she knew you were hurt.

"Right." Frisk, who had been quiet up until this point, tugged at their mother's robe. The kid signed something that you didn't catch, and Toriel's hand flew to grab their shoulder. "Absolutely not! You are not climbing up there, it is far too dangerous." Frisk crossed their arms, and you could practically feel their attitude from your spot in the treetops.

"Listen to your mom, kid. Paps has this under wraps." You called down, then winced as Papyrus worked on untying the tarp from your broken wing. It was bad enough that he'd had to climb up here to help you… you didn't want Frisk risking themselves to get you down, too. The kid pouted and stared up at Papyrus, who was struggling to free you. The tarp from the makeshift wings was ripped and tangled around your bones, making it even more difficult to pry them from your body. Every angle Papyrus attacked it at caused you pain and, despite your best efforts to hide it, the skeleton noticed every time.

"Paps, just get it over with." You groaned as Papyrus jolted back yet again, too afraid of hurting you to make any progress. "I don't care if it hurts, I just want out of this tree." He didn't respond, but you noticed his hands trembling as he went back to fumbling with a knot. You felt bad… maybe you shouldn't have said anything. But the way he was dragging this out was torturous. You couldn't stand it much longer.

Sans had already slipped away, at least partly. You felt him just kind of… floating there, in a haze in your shared mind. You didn't know if it was because of the pain or what had happened _before_ the crash that was making him do this, but you felt responsible either way. The crash had definitely been your fault. If you hadn't gotten disoriented and just paid attention to what was happening…

Suddenly, far below, Frisk twisted out of their mother's grasp and made a dash for the same tree Papyrus was in.

"My child! Come back here this instant!" Toriel called, too slow to stop Frisk from shimmying their little body up the tree trunk. Papyrus jumped in surprise and almost lost his balance. Your muscles twitched, causing a sharp spasm of pain to radiate from your wing to your shoulder.

"Kid, don't." You growled, lacking the energy to do any better. Frisk ignored everyone, making a beeline straight for you. You had a good view of Toriel, whose face was twisted with worry.

"Frisk!" She shouted, sounding more frightened than angry. The kid passed Papyrus, climbing up to a thinner branch above him. They scooched out toward you with the confidence of someone who's climbed a lot of trees in their young life. You kept a wary eye on them, but they never showed any sign of slipping. Soon, they reached the topmost arch of your wing, which happened to be the source of the pain and where most of the tarp was tangled up. Frisk stopped and reached behind them, and you furrowed your brow.

"What're you-" From behind their back, the kid whipped out a knife. A very familiar-looking knife.

 _That_ woke Sans up like nothing else could. His panic easily overpowered you, his left eye flaring with burning energy. Flashbacks to the judgement hall raged in his mind, but he was too tangled in the branches to do much about it. He tried, hard, to summon a blaster, but there was just nowhere for it to go. He'd picked the judgement hall as a battlefield _specifically because_ it was a wide open space - he didn't fight well in close quarters like this. Still, he thrashed senselessly, staring at the kid and the knife with wide, fearful eyes.

 _Sans. SANS. STOP!_ He was too crazed to feel the pain he was causing himself, but _you_ felt it. You screamed at him to _STOP, GODDAMMIT! PLEASE!_ Eventually, thank god, he finally did, though it was more the futility of his struggles that made him come to his senses rather than your pleading.

(After all, the kid pleaded for him to stop sometimes, and that never stayed his hand before.)

"Why d'you still have that thing, kiddo?" Sans growled, his eyes going dark. Frisk, for their part, hadn't moved through this whole ordeal. Somehow, they managed to cling to their branch despite Sans' wild thrashing, one hand clutching the knife to their chest. It was clear to you that this was Frisk, not Chara, but Sans wasn't so sure.

The kid didn't answer (How could they, with one hand holding the knife and the other keeping them from falling out of the tree?) but slowly leaned down until they were lying with their belly on the branch. They kept a wary eye on Sans, and vice versa. Sans was helpless to do anything, anyway, aside from maybe knocking the kid out of the tree with a well-timed jerk of his injured wing.

 _Don't. Please, no more moving._ You begged him, feeling like you were about to either throw up or pass out, but unable to do either of those things without control over the body. It was obvious to you what Frisk was trying to do with the knife, and you did everything in your power to keep Sans from screwing it up.

Slowly, Frisk let go of the branch they were on and reached down for your wing. They pulled the tangled ropes and tarp from your bones as gently as possible, creating enough room to slip the knife in the space between them. The wing twitched involuntarily as the cold edge of the blade pressed against it, but otherwise Sans kept stock still. Frisk began to saw back and forth with the knife, destroying their own creation in an effort to free you from it.

Silence settled over the treetops, save for the chirping of an oblivious bird nearby. Cutting through the makeshift wing took a long time, since Frisk was working on it at such an awkward angle. Plus, the knife dulled quickly, since it wasn't really made for cutting through rope and tarp.

(No, it was made for slicing bone, slashing through the marrow like butter.)

 _I can't take this anymore._ Sans warned you before stepping back, forcing you to take control again. You felt a flash of anger towards him, and it took all of your self-control not to voice it.

Things went a little smoother after that. You kept deathly still, and Frisk felt comfortable enough to shift to a more precarious, but convenient position. They had better leverage when sitting on a thinner part of the branch, and were making real progress cutting through the twisted tarp.

A pressure near the tip of your wing caused your attention to shift. You'd completely forgotten about Papyrus, who went back to working on the more tame knots near the end of the wing. Sans felt a stab of guilt; Papyrus had seen that whole freak-out. It was just lucky Sans hadn't knocked him out of the tree with all of his thrashing. He would never have forgiven himself if he'd hurt Papyrus. As it was, his brother looked fine, though he hadn't spoken a word through the whole ordeal and continued to work in silence as he helped to free you.

While you were staring at Papyrus, you heard a particularly loud _SNIP!_ before the pressure on your wing suddenly disappeared. You gasped in pain as your wing dropped abruptly, the tarp falling away from it. The device crashed through the leaves below, making quite a loud ruckus as it fell away from you. It was hanging on only by a single rope at the tip of your wing, which Papyrus was having trouble untying.

"Well done, human! I - oh, thank you!" Papyrus finally spoke as Frisk reached backwards over to him, holding the knife out to him handle-first. You moaned softly as the pain caused by the sudden change in pressure gave way to relief. You felt yourself slipping out of the tree, and quickly grabbed onto a nearby branch to keep from falling. That tarp must have been what was holding you in place. As soon as Papyrus cut the last rope and the battered wing-part crashed to the ground, you felt that you could free yourself, with a bit of shimmying.

Before you could try, though, Papyrus leaned over to examine your wing. It still throbbed, but, aside from the strange angle it was bent at, you couldn't see anything drastically wrong with it.

"Good news! Your bones are merely dislocated, not broken!" Papyrus exclaimed cheerfully. You didn't know how that was possible, with how much it had hurt, but you believed him. Papyrus grasped one of your wing bones gently, reaching with the other hand to hover over the dislocated joint. He was kneeling awfully precariously on the branch and, injured or not, you prepared to catch him with your wing if he were to lose his balance.

Skillfully, Papyrus slowly twisted your bones back into place while his hand glowed a warm orange color. You thought it should've hurt, like popping a bone back into its socket, but, miraculously, it didn't. The joint felt hot, but otherwise numb as Papyrus worked it into place. For all the trouble it took to diagnose, your dislocated wing healed quite quickly. It was only a minute or so before Papyrus' hand stopped glowing and he scrambled back to a safer position on a thicker part of the branch. You pulled your wing back to your body, feeling incredibly relieved as it was tucked safely and painlessly into its default position behind your back.

"Thank you." You said to both Frisk and Papyrus with the utmost sincerity. You were suddenly exhausted, wanting nothing more than to sleep the rest of the day away. You tugged at your uninjured wing, which was still wrapped up in its own tarp. With enough force and a lot of rustling, it came free from the tree, bits of blue cloth getting stuck behind on the branches. Papyrus helped detangle your torso from the leaves and suddenly, you were free, supporting yourself in the tree with nothing but your own strength. Papyrus cheered in triumph as you shimmied down the trunk, but he was the only one who was happy about this situation.

When you touched down on the ground, Toriel was still staring up at the tree, looking livid. She tapped her foot and put her hands on her hips as she watched Frisk climb down. The kid never looked more glum as they turned to face their mom, their head hanging.

"Frisk! What were you thinking?!" Toriel fussed, grabbing the kid's shoulders and patting them down as if searching for injuries. "You could've gotten hurt! And you!" She rounded on you, and you grit your teeth. "Orion, you almost knocked them out of the tree! What could've possibly been going through your thick head?!" You were shocked; you'd never heard Toriel so angry that she'd resort to name calling. You knew it came from a place of concern, but it stung nonetheless.

"I panicked. Sorry." You said dryly. You heard Papyrus touch down on the ground behind you.

"You panicked? You could've gotten someone killed!" You huffed and turned around, not interested in getting lectured at the moment. You held your hand out to Papyrus, who was bending over to pick up his discarded armour.

"Give it to me. The knife." Papyrus looked alarmed by the whole situation, so you worked hard to soften your expression. "Please? It'll be safer with me." He glanced over at Frisk, who you resolutely avoided looking at. Without argument, he nodded and handed it over.

Your bony fingers spasmed as they clenched around the handle of the knife. If you'd had knuckles, they would've turned white with how hard you gripped it. You stared at it for a moment, before reaching over and hacking at the tarp still attached to your other wing.

"Are you listening to me?!" Toriel exclaimed close behind you. You ignored her, folding your wing back with its twin as soon as the now-useless tarp fell away. "Orion?" She sounded more worried now, and you flinched away as a hand touched your shoulder. You forced yourself to take a deep breath and turned around to face Toriel.

"Sorry. I'm fine, just tired. I think I'm going to go rest now." Reluctantly, you addressed Frisk. None of this was really their fault, after all. "It was a good idea, kid. Thanks." You gave them a strained smile before turning your back on them again. You walked past Papyrus, patting him on the back with your taloned hand as you went.

No one stopped you as you disappeared in the trees, not bothering to return to your house before taking a shortcut back to the barn.


	16. BOGO

Things between you and Sans were strange after that. You silently blamed each other for what happened that day; Sans thought it was your fault that you'd crashed in the trees, and you were equally frustrated with him for losing his cool and nearly hurting Frisk and Papyrus. Neither of you could really be mad at the other, though. Sans knew that you couldn't help being disoriented after… _whatever_ had happened in the air, and you knew it was unfair to blame him for having a flashback. A real, honest-to-God flashback. You hadn't even thought those happened in real life, but you knew better now. Being angry at him was next to impossible when you understood exactly what had happened and why. Likewise, Sans was begrudgingly understanding of your position, though that didn't stop either of you from being frustrated with the situation. Having such complete empathy for one another certainly complicated things.

Permeating all of those conflicting emotions was this unspoken agreement never to talk about that day again. As soon as you got back to the barn after that fiasco, you'd fallen asleep, staying that way for the rest of the day and well into the night. You had no idea what Sans did during that time, but when you woke up, you were in the same position you'd fallen asleep in. Sans had then asked to take the next sleeping shift, and that was that. When Toriel tried to talk to you about it the next day, you gave her nothing but blunt, one-word replies until she got the hint and dropped the subject.

You felt bad, but it was for the best. You didn't even know how to begin talking about what had happened. It was like… like you'd _disappeared_ for a moment. Like you weren't yourself. But, no, that wasn't entirely accurate. It hadn't felt like you were someone totally different, just… _more_. And you remembered those few, split seconds as though they'd happened to you. But Sans remembered them, too. The same memories, of being the same person. So… who had been controlling the body? Who had screamed? Was it both of you? Neither?

You didn't know, and it made you anxious to even think about it. Your definition of "self" was muddled enough already; this was just too much to handle. And what if it happened again? Now that you were hyper-aware of it, you were starting to notice signs that the line between you and Sans was beginning to blur. Papyrus, who was usually so astute, started having so much trouble telling the two of you apart that he stopped calling you "brother" or "human." Instead, he took to calling you "sibling," regardless of who he was really speaking to. It was jarring, the first time he'd said it, and you would've corrected him if you'd been in control at the time. But Sans simply accepted it, as he tended to do with most things.

There were other little things like that, too. You started noticing how you and Sans switched control seamlessly and without discussion. It used to be such a hassle, but now, it felt normal. Neither of you spoke telepathically as much as you used to, either, and not just because of your mutual, yet unspoken agreement not to talk about any of this. You found yourself communicating with him less through words and more through feelings and images. And then, there was the magic. You were getting better and better with it, and even accidentally summoned a bone from the ground once when Papyrus had snuck up behind you and startled you.

You'd felt so bad for accidentally hitting him, even though the blow had glanced off of his protective armour like it was nothing. But even worse was the nagging feeling that you were becoming more like _Sans_ and less like yourself. All of these changes that were happening… none of them were new. Well, whatever had happened while you were flying was very new, but the little things had been getting progressively worse since the beginning. You just hadn't noticed them… had even _encouraged_ some of them… until now. Now, it was practically all you could think about. What if whatever had happened in the air happened _again_? What if it kept happening, until it was permanent? What if your connection to Sans would somehow prevent your two souls from separating, when the time came...?

Perhaps you were making too many assumptions, blowing things way out of proportion… but you didn't have Sans to tell you that you were being ridiculous this time. He had to know you were worried about this; there was hardly anything the two of you didn't know about each other anymore. But he seemed determined to distance himself from you, mentally withdrawing from the situation as much as possible. You didn't think it was out of cruelty, and he was probably doing it to keep that _thing_ from happening again. But it… wasn't fun. Sharing your mind with someone for months only to have them constantly pulling away from you…

You expressed your fear differently from Sans - with explosive energy which you put toward redoubling your efforts to revive your body. You were still careful to monitor Papyrus and made sure he didn't overextend himself, but there were other things you could try without him. Once Alphys and Sans were finally finished with the DTEM (or, as finished as they could be, without anything to test it on), you started roping Alphys into your side of the project. She expressed a sort of passing curiosity for human biology, which spiraled and led to you teaching her everything you knew. You had a bio degree and were fresh out of college, so you thought you did a pretty good job of remembering most of what you'd learned. Alphys was a remarkably quick learner, and was eager to apply what she knew about monster technology to this new area of study. When you weren't watching Papyrus and Toriel struggle to heal your body with magic, you were in a different part of the lab with Alphys, feverishly trying over and over again to concoct an epinephrine substitute which might stimulate your heart to keep beating even after Papyrus stopped exerting his magical influence over it.

It was at the end of one such day that you felt Sans practically vibrating with the effort of holding back a question that he had on his mind. You were just cleaning up after another day in the lab by meticulously labeling and sorting test tubes into their racks. They had to be left to sit overnight, at which point Alphys would be able to analyze them to see if the two of you had finally succeeded or not. It was a long process, with a lot of waiting, trial, and effort. You felt that Sans' question had something to do with this, but he was guarding it too well for you to see the details. If you dug hard enough, you probably could've found it out, but you didn't want to force him. You wanted him to ask you himself, so that he would learn how stupid and futile this whole silent treatment was.

 _Okay, fine, I'll ask… why'd you drop out of medical school? You seem to love this stuff._ Your chest constricted. You were glad Sans was finally talking to you, but what he wanted to talk about was… not a very nice topic.

 _Well, first of all, I didn't drop out… I switched majors. And I was never in medical school, I was just pre-med._ You practically felt Sans' eyeroll. He didn't care about the details, but it was an important distinction to you. Dropping out meant trying and failing, but you had never even tried to begin with. It had seemed better at the time, but now, you didn't know which was worse. _And, um… I just decided that I didn't want to be a doctor anymore. I still liked the subject. The science of it all… but, after a couple years of school, I just felt… no desire to do the job. Helping people… it didn't appeal to me anymore._ You felt a deep sense of shame, _It was right around the time I lost my soul. So, looking back, I guess that had something to do with it._ You were both quiet, before you added, _I wanted to go into research, after that, but now…_ That had been the dream job of a soulless version of you; you didn't think you wanted that for yourself anymore. While the idea of being a researcher wasn't totally repugnant, you would always be reminded of how it hadn't really been _you_ who'd chosen it. You wanted to distance yourself from who you'd been during those two, soulless years as much as possible.

Sans interrupted your thoughts with an imagined image of what you might've looked like as a doctor. He pictured you as a human, in scrubs, with a stethoscope around your neck. You snorted at the stereotypical image and shook your head before dispelling it.

 _Nah. I don't think I could go back to that anymore, either._ After all, doctors had to take the Hippocratic Oath. "Do no harm…" You didn't think you could honestly take that pledge. Sure, it didn't say anything about having done harm in the past, but it still felt… dirty. Like you didn't deserve to say those words.

Sans brought up the image again, more forcefully this time. Except… no, it was slightly different. Your scrubs were a lot skimpier, and you were showing more skin than before. Like one of those slutty Halloween costumes.

 _NO!_ You waved the image away wildly while Sans laughed, your face burning hot. _Now I'm DEFINITELY not becoming a doctor!_

 _Just teasing, kid._ Honestly, even though he was a jerk, it was nice that he was talking to you again. Not that he'd been ignoring you, really… just… _I knew you were upset about our souls doing… whatever they did, so I thought you'd feel safer if I wasn't around so much. You're right, though. It's not working out._ You were surprised, as you so rarely were about anything Sans did anymore.

 _You were just doing it for my sake? What about you? Aren't you upset, too?_ Sans hummed noncommittally.

 _Not really, no. I sure wasn't expecting it, but it felt kinda… nice. Before we started freaking out. Y'know?_ While Sans talked, Asgore's words came to mind. You remembered him telling the two of you to treasure this experience while it lasted. No one had ever been in the position you were in now - at least, not for such a long period of time. Maybe it was better to just let things happen as they may, instead of resisting whatever changes were taking place. And if that was what Sans wanted…

 _I guess let's just… focus on getting me back into my body. Whatever happens between now and then…_ You trailed off with a shrug, putting a stopper on the last test tube and sliding it into its holder. Sans seemed satisfied with that answer.

You were in a markedly better mood as you finished your cleanup procedure by washing down the used beakers with acetone. You even hummed as you worked. Once you were done in the lab, you figured you could grab a bag of dog food from Alphys' stockpile on your way out. While all of the other monster dogs ate normal food, Endogeny still preferred dog food for some reason, so you always liked to keep some at your house for when they came over. You couldn't imagine why they preferred that bland kibble, since you remembered trying it once a long time ago. Never again.

 _That was me._ Sans pointed out.

 _Huh?_ You asked, distracted from your tuneless humming.

 _I'm the one who tried dog food when I was a kid, not you._ You froze, your face scrunched up in concentration. He was… right. Sans was the one who remembered eating dog food, and you'd never tried the stuff in your life. Though you swore you could've practically tasted the bitter, dusty "food" just from a secondhand memory. But you only remembered the taste, not the circumstances that led to the kibble being eaten, which was what convinced you that Sans was right.

 _It must've been really revolting, then, if it's even seeping into my memory._ In light of your recent conversation, you tried to brush the mistake off light-heartedly. Best not to read too much into it. _Why'd you eat dog food, dumbo?_

 _What, you've never been curious?_ Sans replied, but it felt fake. He was lying… but you didn't push. With Sans, it was often better to just let him lie if it made him more comfortable. Though, you _were_ dying to know how dog food could possibly be a touchy subject.

Instead of prying, you concentrated on searching for a bag of dog food in Alphys' messy storage room. Thankfully, the bags were ginormous, so it didn't take you too long to locate one. You hefted it onto your shoulder with the sort of ease that you were probably going to look back on with envy once you returned to your weaker, human body. Just as you were about to turn around and head through a shortcut, a slip of crumpled paper on the floor caught your eye. There was all sorts of trash in the storage room, but this… this had writing on it.

 _Wingdings._

You dropped the dog food back on the ground with a loud _THUD_ , lunging for the paper immediately once your hands were free. You fumbled with the note for a moment, your large, spindly fingers having a tough time straightening out the tiny slip of paper. Once it was smooth, your eyes roved over it, and Sans translated,

"ENTRY NUMBER SEVEN

THE KING HAS BUILT ME A LAB  
AND INSTRUCTED ME TO BUILD IN THE CORE OF THE MOUNTAIN  
THE MACHINE WILL BE DANGEROUS  
IF IT FAILS  
WELL

HE HAS ALSO GIVEN ME A TEAM  
THEY ARE ALL IMBECILES  
I WOULD RATHER WORK ALONE  
BUT THE TASK IS TOO LARGE  
EVEN FOR ME"

You and Sans were both buzzing with excitement. You couldn't even discern your own thoughts from his as they jumbled together messily in your shared mind.

 _Asgore! He's talking about Asgore!_

 _And the Core…_

 _Damn, what happened? He's been talking about the time machine in every entry, why's he on about the Core all of the sudden?_

 _We need to find Entry 6, maybe that'll explain it._

 _What's this entry doing just laying around in the storage room, anyway?_

 _A team… was I a part of the team?_ That one was definitely Sans. The whirlwind of activity in your mind calmed down. _It looked like we were working on something in the pictures. Do you think I worked with him on the Core?_ You looked back at the note, your eyes narrowing. "Imbeciles," he'd called them…

 _Nah, I don't think so. If you were on this team with Gaster, don't you think he would've mentioned you specifically? I mean, you are related. I think that'd be noteworthy to him if his kid or, uh, nephew or something was helping him out._ You shrugged and pulled out your phone, storing the slip of paper safely in your dimensional box alongside all of the other entries you'd collected so far. _Besides, you're not THAT old, right? You probably weren't even alive when the Core was first made._ Sans grunted.

 _Dunno. I don't really know how old the Core is. But, uh, I guess it's been there s'long as I can remember, so you're probably right._ He brightened up considerably. He didn't say it, but he was relieved not to have been lumped in with the other monsters Asgore had assigned to Gaster's team.

 _Hmm… I think we should ask Alphys about the Core, when we get a chance._ You didn't know anything about it other than that it was the source of power for the Underground, and that it was invented by Gaster. And you wouldn't have even known that last part if you hadn't cheated and looked up Undertale secrets on the internet, way back when you first played the game. Likewise, Sans knew little to nothing about the Core, and he agreed that Alphys would probably be the best monster to ask. Unfortunately, she'd gone home early today, leaving you to clean up the lab by yourself. Something about an anime night with Undyne… you hadn't asked.

 _It is weird, though, that we keep randomly finding these things._ Sans changed the subject as you leaned down to pick up the bag of dog food again. _Do you think…_ He cut himself off, afraid that you'd think his idea was stupid.

 _What?_ You pressed, while wordlessly encouraging him not to be afraid. You would never think he was stupid… yeah, maybe you called him "dumb" sometimes, but it was a term of endearment coming from you. He scoffed at that, but continued, so you considered it a win.

 _Well, do you think Gaster might be… sending us these entries, somehow? Like, um, maybe he_ wants _us to read them?_ You'd… never thought about that before, but it didn't seem impossible. If Gaster was in some kind of limbo, maybe he was sending you messages from the void. But why? Does he think, perhaps, that you and Sans could actually save him? And were these entries supposed to help you accomplish that, somehow?

You felt a flutter of hope in your chest. Maybe hidden in these entries was some way to bring Gaster back. Then Sans would be able to ask him all of these burning questions he had. He'd finally have answers, closure… and he'd be able to see his dad. He'd never had a parent, but he knew, from your dreams and memories, what he was missing out on. He wanted to feel that warmth that you felt whenever you were embraced by your parents. He wanted to feel protected, loved…

You were respectfully quiet as you allowed Sans to feel his feelings. For someone who shared a mind with the guy, you'd been so oblivious to what he was going through. You'd had no idea that he was watching your dreams, listening to your heartache whenever you thought about missing your parents, and growing jealous of the family you had. It just made you even more determined to help Sans find _his_ dad… if that really was what Gaster was to him.

Neither of you spoke again, though you silently lended Sans your emotional support as you carried the bag of dog food through a shortcut that led near the Underground's exit. You walked out onto the surface, the sunset casting long shadows as you picked your way down to the road. Once you were there, though, you saw that there was already someone at your house, pounding on your front door urgently.

"ORION!? ARE YOU HOME?! PLEASE BE HOME!" Papyrus yelled so loud that you could hear him from where you stood. No matter how often you told him that you didn't actually live in that damned house, he still always looked for you there first.

"I'm here!" You called out to him, sprinting to his side in no time flat. He whirled around and jumped, startled to find you already right behind him.

"AH! SIBLING! YOU NEED TO HURRY!" Papyrus grabbed your arm and pulled, causing you to drop the bag of dog food unceremoniously on your porch. He dragged you back onto the road, and you followed with a frown.

"What? What's wrong? Where're we going?" You asked uncertainly, not yet sure how serious this really was. It was hard to tell with Papyrus… sometimes, he could overreact to very minor problems, or underreact to catastrophic events.

"YOUR INTERVIEW! IT'S RIGHT NOW! YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE!" Paps shouted at you, and you stopped suddenly, unwilling to be dragged any further without a proper explanation.

"Stop. What interview?" Papyrus pulled on your arm insistently. But, when you really dug your heels in, no one, not even Papyrus, was capable of moving you.

"YOUR INTERVIEW WITH THE HUMANS!" The skeleton yelled, then abruptly let go of you and threw up his arms dramatically. "They received our field trip applications and want to interview us! The humans taped a list of all the interview dates and times to the King's door, and you're the first one! Now would you PLEASE hurry!?" He pulled you forward again, and you followed reluctantly. The two of you were crashing through the trees now; you had no idea where Papyrus was leading you.

"The field trip… to the village?" You were still processing this. "And they want to interview me?" You felt a flood of anxiety at the thought. Were they really considering letting you on the trip? You'd only submitted that application to humor Asgore… you weren't prepared for an interview!

"YES! ISN'T IT EXCITING?!" Papyrus dashed between the trees, pulling you behind him. As you ran to keep up, your wings kept knocking into branches and tree trunks; you weren't made to be sprinting through dense undergrowth, you were far too big. Where the hell was Papyrus taking you?

Your question was soon answered as you came upon a man-made clearing. Immediately after bursting out of the trees, you were faced with a tall, wooden structure. You craned your neck to look up at it, and recognized it as a guard tower. It looked much larger, more imposing, when you were standing right in front of it. The Northwest tower, if you remembered correctly what direction Papyrus had pulled you in when you left the camp. Your head twisted around, looking in either direction at the lines of clear-cut trees that marked the border of the camp. It was eerie, to see the continuity of nature so abruptly disturbed.

"The interview's up there?" You asked skeptically. Papyrus nodded enthusiastically and gave you a little push.

"Go on! You'll do great! Mine's right after yours, so I'll just wait here for you!" Sans didn't think he liked Papyrus waiting here all alone, at the very edge of monster territory, but he didn't have time to argue. Papyrus was quickly ushering you to the base of the winding stairs that led up to the tower. Reluctantly, and still bewildered by everything that was happening, you began to climb.

"Good luck!" You gulped, not finding much comfort in Papyrus' encouraging words. Why the hell were the humans even _thinking_ about letting you into town?! You were the freakiest, most suspicious monster out there! You had talons! You teleported all over the place!

 _Maybe this isn't about the field trip,_ Sans suggested darkly, _Maybe they're just trying to corner us up in the tower. To question us._ You paused in the middle of the stairs, glancing up at the structure above with trepidation. The humans _had_ gone looking for you at Asgore's house once before. You thought you'd calmed their suspicions by only taking shortcuts under cover of your fake house, but perhaps that hadn't been enough.

 _Well, what's the worst that could happen?_ You pointed out with forced optimism as you began climbing the stairs again. You really, _really_ didn't want to face the humans, but it seemed unavoidable at this point. Even if you ran away from this encounter, it seemed like every force in the universe was trying to get you to talk to them. You'd tried to avoid making any waves as Orion, but you already screwed that up, so why not dig the hole a little deeper? And, hey, even if this went badly, you wouldn't have to face any repercussions for it once you were back in your normal body. That thought troubled Sans, for some reason.

With every step that took you closer to the top of the tower, your reassurances grew weaker. Your bones rattled nervously as you emerged onto the landing at the top of the tower. You couldn't even appreciate the spectacular view, as you were too busy peering into the open structure in front of you. It looked like one of those buildings that park rangers used to watch for fires. It was small - so much so that you were worried you wouldn't fit inside. In the center of the room was a rectangular table, which seemed to be used for gatherings. Was this where Asgore went whenever he had a meeting with the humans? In one corner, facing the monster encampment far below, was a well-worn chair. Binoculars sat on the glassless windowsill in front of the chair and a big rifle leaned casually in the corner next to it, but no guard was occupying the spot at the moment. Shoved in the opposite corner was a large, circular map, presumably of the camp and the surrounding area.

As your gaze swept over the scene, three pairs of eyes turned to look back at you. Three humans were in the tower; two were sitting at the table and one was standing behind the empty guard's chair. You recognized one of the sitting humans as the middle-aged, suit-wearing guy who'd been looking for you at Asgore's house. Mr. Reives, Asgore had called him. The other sitting human was a woman, also middle-aged and wearing a suit. The guy who was standing was considerably younger. He was dark skinned and wore some kind of uniform, though you didn't recognize it from anywhere. All of the humans were startled upon seeing you, but this younger guy had the most intense reaction. He jumped and swore under his breath, his hand twitching toward the rifle in the corner. You watched him with a wary eye as you opened the flimsy screen door and ducked inside, your wings scraping roughly against the doorframe.

There was silence as human and monster eyed each other up. You'd known you were big, but you didn't think you realized just _how_ big until you were standing next to normal, adult-sized humans. You had to hunch way over in order to fit under the low ceiling of the tower, and there was hardly even any room for you to stand. Had you been in your human body, probably everyone present would have been taller than you. Certainly, everyone would have been taller than Sans. But, as it was, you towered above the three humans, dripping blood from your legs onto the wooden floor. You had to have looked fucking terrifying.

"Um… hi." You broke the silence awkwardly while scratching the back of your neck. Reives and the woman seemed to come to their senses and stood up simultaneously.

"Ah… y-you must be Orion, right?" Reives spoke with what was obviously a forced smile. He thrust out his right hand, but didn't approach you. "I'm Agent Reives, overseer of monster affairs for the FBI. This is Agent Wolfe…" Reives trailed off, looking between you and his own outstretched hand. When it became clear that you weren't going to shake it, he lowered it slowly.

"Uh, sorry… it's just, you probably don't want to shake my right hand." You waved your sharp talons in explanation before holding out your left hand instead, closing the space between you and the man with a single long stride. The younger guy twitched again, drawing your attention. He had his hand resting on the barrel of the rifle. Not grabbing it yet, but the gesture was threatening nonetheless. Reives distracted you by taking your hand in his own. His grip was firm, and his fingers warm.

"I'm glad we could finally meet." Reives said. He probably meant it in a polite way, but to you, it sounded foreboding. You held on just a little too long, transfixed by your joined hands. You let go as soon as you realized, your cheeks heating up a bit.

"Yeah." You grunted, not able to honestly return the sentiment. You glanced at the women, Agent Wolfe, wondering if she wanted to shake your hand, too. The way she shrank away from you, unable to meet your eyes, answered that question. "Not really interested in meeting your gun, though." You continued, your gaze sliding from Wolfe to the nervous man, whose hand was still on his weapon. "You mind cooling it there, Rambo?"

It was perhaps a little shameful, but, as you got more comfortable with your surroundings, you were emboldened by the feeling of power the humans' fear granted you. That power, plus the sense of anonymity that came with being Orion, made you a bit more arrogant than you might have been otherwise.

It had the desired effect. The young man's hand dropped from the rifle, though he crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"Monsters don't usually know what guns are." Ah, so he could speak!

"I do my homework." You shrugged, and mirrored his crossed arms. You got the feeling that this guy didn't like you from the get-go, and wondered if you'd done something to personally offend him or if he just had a grudge against monsters. Reives sighed almost imperceptibly.

"And this is Officer Charles Tucker… he is one of the guards stationed at this tower. He volunteered to sit in on the interviews today." You assumed by the way he was acting that "sit in" really meant "threaten to shoot any monster who looked at him wrong."

 _Maybe you should cool it, too, kid._ Sans suggested from the passenger seat, and you grudgingly heeded his words. You were being pretty paranoid, but could he really blame you? Nothing about this situation was normal or comfortable. _Just pretend you're human… try to act like you would if you were in your own body._ It was decent advice, so you figured you'd give it a try. You took a deep breath to calm your nerves, before uncrossing your arms and offering your hand to the younger guy, too.

"Orion. Nice to meet you, Officer Tucker." He looked taken aback, but couldn't seem to resist taking your hand. You felt him shudder at the feeling of your skeletal bones.

"Just Charlie." He grunted, taking a quick step back as soon as contact between the two of you was severed. The woman, Wolfe, cleared her throat.

"Ah, right, Orion… we have some preliminary questions we would like to ask before deciding who is to go on this first excursion to Little Ebott." The side of your mouth twitched into a grin. You could already tell where she was from just by that one sentence. The only people who referred to Ebott Town as "Little Ebott" were people who were from the bigger city on the North side of the mountain. Which, coincidentally, also happened to be called Ebott. Whoever had founded the two settlements on either side of the mountain hadn't done a good job coordinating the names. Officially, the smaller village was named "South Ebott" and the big city, which you could see in the distance from the tower you were currently in, was called "North Ebott."

Agent Wolfe seemed not to notice your smile and sat down at the table, absentmindedly straightening some of the papers on it. She looked much more comfortable with a stack of paperwork in front of her. Reives sat down on her right, and you shuffled over to take a seat across from both of them. Charlie remained standing, leaning backwards on the open windowsill. He didn't seem at all bothered by it, but your fear of heights made you nervous for him.

"So, we noticed you moved into the neighborhood recently. How do you like it up here?" Reives asked while Wolfe sifted through some papers. The woman seemed not to like looking at you, as she tended to avert her eyes. You tried not to let it bother you.

"S'fine." You answered automatically, then paused and amended, "Actually, it's not fine. Those houses are new, and yet they're already falling apart. And, y'know, this is a nice view you've got here… but it's pretty intimidating from the ground." You gestured to the view of the camp out the window. Of the four towers, this one had to have the best view of the camp, since you could see the road, the Underground's exit, and the fronts of all of the houses from here. "Most monsters don't want to come live up here, and I can't blame them. They don't want to be on 24 hour surveillance."

Reives blinked, the only sign that he was surprised by your bluntness. Charlie snorted, as though holding back laughter. You weren't sure what was so funny.

"We're sorry to hear you're unsatisfied," Wolfe spoke briskly, still not looking at you, "But we're afraid the towers are a must. They're for your safety, too, to keep humans from disturbing your kind." You narrowed your eyes, growing more irritated the longer she stared at her papers. You drummed your talons on the table, but she still wouldn't look up.

"Haven't seen any humans around here, aside from you people. The camp's location is classified, isn't it? No one would know where to find us, anyway." Reives raised his brows and leaned forward.

"It is, but how do you know that?" You frowned. He got you there. You couldn't very well admit that you got your information by spending your summer months rooting through the trash, reading the latest newspapers.

"Uh, Asgore told me." You lied hurriedly. "We talk. A lot. We're friends." Reives hummed and leaned back in his chair again, but you got the prickling feeling that he knew you weren't being truthful. He was FBI, after all. Weren't they trained in this sort of interrogation stuff? You fidgeted in your seat.

"It's true that the general public doesn't know where this facility is located, but we are not exactly being very discreet. I'm sure you've noticed the helicopters flying in and out of here… people are bound to find this place eventually. So the guard towers are for everyone's safety." You grunted, unable to really argue with that. You understood why the humans thought it was necessary to confine and guard the monsters to keep them from branching out into the world, but just because you understood didn't make it fair to them or convenient for you.

"Be better if everyone could just get along, wouldn't it?" You smiled ruefully, the sentiment coming from both you and Sans. Reives smiled back at you, but it felt fake.

"That is what we are trying to work towards." Ugh. You could see why Asgore got along with this guy. If only Reives was as genuine as the King, maybe you would feel better about this whole situation.

 _You think he's got some kind of ulterior motive?_ Sans asked, not arguing, but just curious.

 _I know he does. I haven't forgotten about the gold._ Reives was obviously benefiting financially from rubbing shoulders with the monsters, and you didn't trust anyone who was out to make money at other people's expense. You got a bad vibe from the other agent, too, as she held herself too rigidly and still couldn't seem to look you in the eye. Charlie, at least, was transparent about his dislike of you. Oddly, you felt that he was more trustworthy than the other two put together.

"Anyway, Orion… what do you do for a living?" You tilted your head at Wolfe, who had interrupted your thoughts.

"You should know… you're looking at my application." You pointed out, seeing that the top piece of paper on her stack was the application you'd submitted to go on this field trip. You were really beginning to regret filling it out. Undeterred, Wolfe continued,

"You wrote that you're unemployed. Care to elaborate?" You grunted and narrowed your eyes. She was finally looking up from her papers, but she was staring at a point just to the right of your shoulder. You clicked your jaw.

"I'm just not working right now. I moved into the house on the surface because it was free… Asgore's not making us pay rent up here." You lied easily this time, because it was partly true. In an effort to get more monsters to live on the surface, Asgore was paying for the weekly rent and supply drops out of his own pocket. It didn't help, as no new monsters had moved up there since the dog family moved in last month.

"I see. And what did you do before you stopped working?" You clenched your teeth. You were beginning to see that this was not going to be easy to maintain, but you didn't see any alternative to lying your way through this whole interview. There was just too much you couldn't talk about, and it was going to create a barrier between you and these humans. You could already feel yourself becoming far too defensive to these innocent questions.

"Worked odd jobs. Retail, mostly." You thought that sounded pretty believable, and Wolfe seemed to buy it since she nodded and wrote something down in the margins of your paper.

"And you have two half-brothers, correct? Papyrus and Sans?" You twitched, trying not to show how deeply uncomfortable that statement made you. Why'd she have to ask you questions she already knew the answers to?

"Yup." You answered, too coldly. You got a raised eyebrow from Reives.

"Do you get along with them?" He asked. Your mind blanked, but thankfully, Sans supplied you with an answer which you parrotted out loud,

"I get along with Paps just fine, but Sans and I don't always see eye-to-eye." _That way, maybe when I come back, they'll just think Orion left because they don't want to be around me._ Sans reasoned, and you were impressed with his quick thinking. "Don't see why that has anything to do with this, though." You muttered as an afterthought. This only piqued Reives' curiosity more, which made you squirm. You didn't like being the subject of his scrutiny.

"Be honest with me, Orion…" He leaned forward, looking you dead in the eye, unlike his partner. "Why did you apply for this opportunity? You don't seem to want to be here." You felt relieved. Now, at least, you could tell the truth.

"Papyrus wants to go… and my brother's so cool, I know you're gonna let him. But he's _not_ going without me. I need to be there to…" You stopped. You felt that Sans had taken over there for a moment, but it was hard to tell nowadays. The thought of Papyrus wandering around in a human town alone made _both_ of you sick. You needed to go with, to protect him if anything happened. You'd lie your way through a hundred interviews just to ensure that.

Reives seemed satisfied with that answer, for the first time since the agents had begun their questioning.

"I assure you, if your brother does get accepted, he will be perfectly safe with us. We plan on keeping this first trip brief, and there will be as many guards as there are monsters… hell, even Turner's going on the trip, aren't you?" He looked over at Charlie, who nodded stiffly. Oh, yeah, _that_ made it all better.

"I still want to go with him." You crossed your arms and leaned back, the tips of your wings scraping on the wooden floor. Reives nodded solemnly.

"I understand. I have a little sister, myself, so I get why you'd be worried." You didn't care to hear about the agent's family, and were almost grateful when Wolfe interjected with another question.

"Orion, would you be willing to file down or clip your… er… fingers, if you were to be accepted?" You reeled back, aghast.

"Huh?!" You clenched your teeth and clutched your hands to your chest. She was talking about the talons, you quickly realized, but that didn't make it any better!

"It's just that we have a strict no-weapons policy, and those, well…" You held up your right hand. You supposed you could see where she was coming from; your talons were basically the size of knives. You'd just never thought of them as weapons. They were more of an annoyance, than anything.

Before you could answer, though, Charlie suddenly sprung up and interrupted,

"Oh, for fucks sake! Why don't either of you ask the _real_ question, here?! We all know you're not gonna let 'em on the trip, so just ask what you called them here to ask!" All eyes turned to the officer, who looked fed up.

"Officer Turner! You are way out of line-" Wolfe began to scold him, but you growled,

"No. Let him talk." Your voice commanded authority, even to the FBI agents at the table. "You want to ask me a question, Charlie? Please do." You were… impressed, actually, with Charlie's honesty. You appreciated being told straight-up that you had no chance of getting on this trip. And you appreciated being looked at directly, not being jerked around by asinine questions.

Charlie took a step toward you, but you remained seated. He looked you over for a long moment, then asked in a heated voice,

"Where the hell did you come from? You didn't come from underground, I know that much. Where do you go when you disappear in the forest? Are you some kind of psycho, bigfoot monster that preys on children, or something? I know there've been an awful lot of kids going missing in these woods, way before the freaks even crawled out of their caves…"

"Turner!" Reives cut him off sharply, and you held up a hand. Again, you were impressed. So this Charlie guy had been watching you. You weren't so sneaky, after all. Oddly, it was almost a relief, to at least _know_ that the humans knew there was something different about you. And, while Charlie was completely wrong about your connection to the missing children, you had to admire the thought he'd put into it.

"First things first… I had nothing to do with those missing kids. And, as for where I go when I disappear…"

You felt Sans yelling at you to stop, but…

"I can teleport. That's my magic." Stunned silence. You spoke to Charlie, completely ignoring Reives and Wolfe. And Sans, for that matter. "I've been teleporting out of the camp, living in an abandoned barn. There's a few of them, on the South side. I haven't been bothering anyone, and I certainly haven't hurt anyone." It was such a relief, to tell even a part of the whole truth. You felt Sans getting angry with you, once his shock began to wear off.

 _Sorry, Sans. Maybe soulless me could've kept a lie this big, but I'm just not built for it._ You were truly sorry that he'd have to suffer whatever consequences this would bring, through no fault of his own. But you just couldn't find it in you to lie to Charlie when he was being so honest with you.

"Y-you can't do that!" Wolfe exclaimed, _finally_ looking at you. Her mouth was agape, and even Reives looked to have lost some of his cool. His eyes were wide as saucers, and his eyebrows looked like they were about to shoot up off of his head.

"I mean… I could show you, if you really wanted." You offered, but Reives shook his head sternly.

"No. If you really are leaving the facility's grounds… this is a huge breach of contract." The way he said it worried you, and you furrowed your brow.

"I wasn't aware of a contract… this isn't Asgore's fault, or anyone's responsibility but mine. I'm the only monster with the ability to teleport." There, you'd at least kept Sans' lie, so that no one would know about his abilities once he returned to his usual self. It didn't stop him from being disgruntled with you in the present, though. "I never signed a contract, and you've got no right to keep me trapped there." You gestured to the camp, which was sprawled out below. "I'm not causing any harm, and, if you'd let the other monsters go, you'd see that they wouldn't, either." You crossed your arms, as though that settled things. Sans groaned, so frustrated with you that he was unable to form coherent words. The agents were staring at you speechlessly, but Charlie was grinning.

"Well, I guess that settles that." He just seemed glad to have been given a straight answer, and you thought you might've earned his tentative respect.

"No, it doesn't!" Wolfe stood and placed her hands on the table, outraged. "We simply cannot allow this to continue!" You snorted condescendingly.

"Lady, I can teleport. I could leave right now... there's nothing you can do to stop me." Now that you were on a roll, you figured you might as well keep going. You had to keep reminding yourself that none of this would matter once Orion disappeared, anyway. Orion wasn't a real person, so any bad rep you accumulated with the humans under this name was null and void.

Actually, it reminded you of the resets in the game. Once you'd realized that resetting your Undertale game wiped away any mistakes you'd made on your previous run, you'd started acting like… well, like you were acting right now. Like nothing you did mattered anyway, so why not experiment? Orion wasn't going to be around for long. This save file wasn't going to be around for long. So who cared if you made a few enemies? Who cared if you killed people?

That connection stopped you in your tracks. Sans felt nauseous and, honestly, you did, too. You were falling into the same thinking traps as before… making the same mistakes that had created this mess in the first place.

 _What happened to "every timeline matters"?_ Sans finally spoke, disgusted with you. You flinched. Those were your words, originally spoken in a different context, but they still applied here. He was right… you were going down a dangerous path. You needed to stop doing this.

"How about we make a deal?" Reives spoke, and you looked at him blankly. "We'll let you come on the trip to South Ebott, and any future excursions out of the facility, if you agree to stop teleporting past the border." He sounded meek, and a little pleading. He was clearly getting the better end of the bargain with this deal; after all, if you really wanted to go on the trip, you could just teleport yourself there. There'd be nothing Reives or anyone else could do about it. You shouldn't accept a deal that was weighted so far in Reives' favor. But…

"Alright." You said, staring at the grain on the wooden table. You should care about these humans. You should care about what you did as Orion, even if there really would be no consequences for it in the future.

Sans was still angry, and you knew, despite what he'd said as you were dying, that he didn't forgive you for what you'd done in the game. You'd suspected that for a while, but his reaction now felt like confirmation. Instead of being pissed that he'd lied to you, you just felt determined.

 _I've learned my lesson. I might mess up sometimes, but I'll prove it to you. Eventually._ You didn't expect a response, and you didn't receive any.

"'Alright'? But how will we know that they're holding up their end of the deal?" Wolfe said, addressing Reives. You cut in with a faraway look,

"You'll just have to trust me." Wolfe looked incredulous, and you knew she didn't have any faith in you. You didn't really blame her.

"I trust 'em." Charlie added his two cents, still grinning. He seemed like he was enjoying this confrontation. Reives scrutinized you, and you wished you knew what he was thinking. Your rapidly changing mood and actions probably didn't make much sense to an outsider. Regardless, Reives shrugged,

"I'll take it." He said simply, grabbing your application from Wolfe and writing "Approved" on the top. She looked scandalized, but said nothing against his decision. "I expect you to move into that house... for real, this time. And I would like to know the location of the barn you've been staying at." You shrugged.

"Sure, I guess." You had nothing to hide there, now that the body was safe in the lab. You stood up and shuffled over to the map in the corner, staring at it for a moment before pointing to a spot with a talon. "It's around there, about a quarter of the way up the South face of the mountain." Reives came to stand beside you, and marked the place you were pointing to on the map with a pen.

"Alright, that's all. This meeting has gone far over the allotted time already… so if you could send your brother up on your way out, that would be great." You blinked, surprised at being so suddenly dismissed. Reives added, "Oh, and we will contact you as soon as a date is scheduled for the trip. It will likely be sometime during the last week in October, so make sure you are available." But… that was next week. It seemed awfully soon to you. You shrugged; it wasn't like you had any other plans, anyway.

"Sure." After a pause, you held out your hand again. Reives shook it firmly. Wolfe reluctantly walked over to you to shake your hand, too.

"I am glad we could work something out." Reives said, with a strained smile. You honestly didn't know if telling the truth had been more or less damaging to your relationship with the humans than if you had lied. It was over now, though, so you tried not to think about how it could've gone otherwise.

"Yeah, me too." Before you left, you gave Charlie a nod, and the guard gave you a cheeky grin and casual salute in return. You still weren't really sure what to think of him.

The sky was dark by the time you left the tower, but you hardly noticed. You descended the stairs in a bit of a haze, neither you nor Sans sharing your feelings with each other. You didn't know if your actions had gone over well or not with the humans, but you did know that you'd damaged something with Sans. That alone was enough to make you regret what you'd done.

"Oh, sibling! How did it go?!" Papyrus greeted you enthusiastically at the bottom of the stairs, but his bright smile slipped a little when he saw your expression.

"Fine. I got approved." You forced yourself to smile at him, and jerked your thumb toward the stairs. "You're up, bro." He looked a little nervous, to which you added, "Hey, if I could get approved, there's no way they won't adore The Great Papyrus, right?" No matter how bad of a mood you were in, there was no chance you were going to let Papyrus go up there without reassurance. The skeleton beamed at you, so easily cheered by your words.

"You're right! Nyeh heh heh!" Papyrus bounded past you, taking the stairs three at a time. You watched him climb the spiral staircase, dragging a tired hand down your face.

 _I'm sorry. That won't happen again._ You tried talking to Sans, but you sensed that he wasn't in the mood. It felt… incredibly shitty, to have him upset with you. His approval meant a lot to you; more than you'd realized before today. _I'm going to make it up to you, I promise._ You knew vows like that meant something to him, and you fully intended on keeping it. He still didn't want to share, though, so you respected his boundaries by not pushing. You walked over to a nearby tree and leaned against its trunk, staring up at the tower and silently waiting for Papyrus to re-emerge from it.

.

.

((A/N: I'm copying my author's notes from AO3, because there's some important stuff that you'll probably want to know about!

"Christ, this took me an age to write. This is the longest chapter to date, though, so you can't really blame me :P

So, Orion finally meets these human OC characters I've been hinting at... how do you like Reives, Wolfe, and Charlie?

I'm curious... what do you think happened to Sans to make him eat dog food? There is a bit of a story behind it, but it probably won't come up again, so any headcanon you might have is valid ;)

Also, I have some bad news (well, bad for you, but good for me). I'm going on a trip to Europe for two weeks starting May 9th, so there won't be any updates during that time! We're going all over Europe - it's a bit like a road trip sort of thing, so there'll be a lot of travel time. I'm planning on writing this fic whenever I'm on a plane/train/bus, but it'll likely be on paper (unless I decide to take my laptop with me, still not sure) so whatever I write during the trip won't get posted until after.

I haven't been able to write as much as usual recently, either, due to finals and all of the prep I have to do for this trip. My life is pretty busy right now, but I'll have way more free time than I know what to do with come June! So you can expect way more frequent updates from this fic over the summer :)

That's all, hope you enjoyed the chapter!"))


	17. Becoming (De)Harmonious

((A/N: Warning for a pretty nasty slur in this chapter. I don't want it to shock people, because it's not there for shock value. So just be aware!))

.

.

Again, your relationship with Sans was strained. It seemed the two of you were just never on the same wavelength, constantly orbiting around each other like planets, doomed never to touch. As with most things, he didn't want to talk about what had happened. He didn't want to talk at all, though it was rather unavoidable when the two of you shared a mind.

 _There's just nothing you could say to make this better. Forget about it, 'kay?_ He'd told you, a day after the interview. But you couldn't forget about it, especially when you didn't understand _why_ he was so upset. So you'd told the humans you could teleport… yeah, it was a shitty thing to do when Sans had been so adamantly against it, but you hadn't thought it had been THAT egregious. But Sans didn't want to talk about it, and you didn't want to make him angry by pushing.

Still, it was only a matter of time before the truth was slowly revealed to you. Despite your disagreements, your soul was getting more and more tangled up with Sans' by the day. Sans seemed unwilling to fight whatever force was pulling the two of you together, so you were bound to figure out how he was really feeling eventually.

When you did, the truth was heartbreaking. Sans wasn't mad at you, as you'd assumed, but he felt helpless. It wasn't really about the fact that the humans now knew of your abilities, but how you'd gone against his will and made such an important decision without him. It made him feel like he was back underground again, when nothing he did made a difference. You were, again, controlling his life, and there was nothing he could do about it. He didn't even want to try. There'd been a few months there where he'd thought he was getting his life back together. Finally finding the Anomaly, figuring out that you were just a normal person who'd made some bad decisions, trying to "fix" you and foolishly thinking that he'd succeeded… he'd had a sliver of hope there, for a while. But now, he was right back where he'd started. Even worse, because now the Anomaly was _in_ him. Despite how dire the situation was, he couldn't find the motivation to care much.

You hadn't really thought your choice to tell the truth would affect Sans, at least not in the future when your souls were separated again. But you hadn't thought about the bigger picture of what this would mean to him. You'd been selfish, thinking that your actions would only affect you. God, how stupid could you get? You were sharing a body with him, you were practically the same person at this point… of course he was going to resent you for making important decisions on behalf of both of you. And after what you'd done to him in the game? It was a wonder he didn't hate you.

But he didn't seem to have the energy to hate anyone anymore. He never took control of the body (Why would he, when the DTEM was finished? There was nothing left for him to contribute anymore) and, after a few days, he even stopped tried to hide his thoughts from you. The line between you and Sans was more ambiguous than ever. You often found yourself saying and thinking things that Sans would normally say or think, if he wasn't so depressed. Your dreams were muddled; a frightening mix between your memories and Sans'. It became pointless to sleep separately - you didn't think there was much of a difference anymore. Without discussing it, you both just stopped taking shifts. It certainly gave you more waking time during the day, if nothing else. Now you weren't constantly exhausted from lack of sleep… instead, you were worn down from the confusing nightmares every night. You couldn't win.

Then, five days after the interview with the humans, _it_ happened again.

It happened while you were supervising Papyrus and Toriel as they worked on your body. You were less freaked out by the sight of yourself now and, as long as you kept the sheet covering your body's face, you could be in the same room as it without much of a problem. Your shirt and pants had long since been cut from it, but having your body practically on display wasn't as embarrassing as you would have thought. Toriel was too much of a mother figure for it to be weird, and Papyrus was too innocent to think anything of it. Besides, he was practically your brother, at this point. It certainly felt like it when he called you "sibling" all of the time.

You watched passively as he brought life back to your flesh, his eyes glowing softly and pulsing a little in time with the beeping heart rate monitor. Your heartbeat was much steadier than the first time you'd heard it, and Papyrus could keep it going for hours now without breaking a sweat. _He's really gotten good at this._ You thought fondly as you watched him rest a hand on the sheet covering the body's forehead. It seemed to help when he maintained physical contact with the body, somehow. He had a hard time explaining to you how the necromancy stuff worked.

Meanwhile, Toriel had one hand on your chest, resting against your sternum. She and Papyrus had been making slow progress healing your decayed flesh. They'd managed to bring most of your organs back online, at least while Papyrus was exerting his influence on the body. Of course, as soon as he grew too tired to maintain your heartbeat, everything fell apart. Any progress Toriel made healing you was undone every time you flatlined. But still, she persisted, and every time she and Papyrus brought the body back to life, she got a little farther. Learned a little more about your anatomy.

It was while Toriel was working on your body's lungs that it happened. There was far less fanfare than the first time, and you had no idea what triggered it. All you knew was that you suddenly felt like one person again. There was no one else in your mind. Just… you.

Your breath hitched. You flinched, but made an effort to calm yourself. You didn't… necessarily want it to stop. Not right away, not this time. You kept your arms crossed and you continued to lean rigidly against the wall. You closed your eyes and focused on breathing. Eventually, the rhythmic sound of your human body's beating heart calmed you, and you were able to ask yourself how you were feeling.

The answer was… refreshed. You felt so _new_ , but also incredibly old. You had the memories of two lifetimes. But it wasn't as confusing as you might've expected. The only time it got weird was in your recent memories, when both of your halves had been interacting with each other. You remembered arguing with yourself, hurting yourself… you tried not to think about those times. So you went back to the beginning.

You remembered standing in a dark room, holding something heavy in your small arms. It was your first memory (well, one of two), and you remembered feeling confused. Where were you? Why didn't you remember anything? _Who_ were you?

 _Sans._ Your mind supplied. Your name was Sans, you knew that much. You said it out loud, to test it, and the thing in your arms squirmed at the sound of your voice. You looked down at it, and saw that it wasn't an "it," but a "he."

"Papyrus?" You asked the bundle, as though he'd know. You didn't know how you knew his name, but you felt fiercely emotional just looking at his tiny, chubby cheeks. The weight of those feelings nearly knocked you off of your feet.

"Don't worry, Pappy," You said in a trembling, childish voice, "I'll protect you."

The memory changed, and you remembered being a different kid. A human child, lying on a bed far too big for you. You were in a hospital gown, and couldn't lift your leg because of the big cast that was attached to it. Your eyes were red and itchy from crying. You hated getting a new cast; having the old one cut off was scary because the buzzing saw was loud and daunting, and no matter how many times you went through it without incident, it always frightened you. Plus, getting the new cast put on hurt. The nurses always cranked your ankle as far up as it would go and, though they apologized as they did it, it was still painful. You knew from experience that it'd throb for a couple weeks, at least.

Your dad, who'd held your hand during the ordeal, had left you alone for a moment. He'd gone to go get Mom, who was waiting elsewhere in the hospital. She tried to be there for you, but she couldn't watch you being sad without getting sad, herself. That was how she'd explained it, anyway.

Next time, you'd really try hard not to cry or scream, like a big kid. Then maybe Mom would stay, and pet your hair the way you liked.

The memory changed.

You remembered being hungry, your bony butt sticking up in the air as you rooted through someone else's trash. You kept one eye on Pap, who was finally quiet for once. Even though he was small, he could sure yell and scream when he wanted. He did it more when he hadn't eaten in awhile, so you always made sure to feed him extra. That, and you didn't want him growin' up to be a runt, like you.

You didn't find any food in the trash that day, but you did find something special. A blue, fur-lined hoodie. It looked new - way too new to be sitting in the garbage. It gave you a weird, prickling feeling when you picked it up. It was like you were meant to find it, like it was already yours. You felt that it already had sentimental value, even though you had no idea whose it had been or where it had come from.

Childish glee spread across your face as you draped it over your shoulders. It was huge, heavy, and hung down past your knees. But it was so warm, and your favorite color! You waved your arms, the sleeves flapping with the movement.

"Hey Pap, how do I look?" You asked with a toothy grin. "I bet I look _Sans_ ational." Your little bro gurgled, and you took it to be a laugh. With some difficulty, you scooped him up and held him to your chest. You zipped the hoodie around him and peered down at him through its collar.

"There, now you'll be nice n' warm."

The memory changed.

You were ten, sitting indoors doing a puzzle by yourself. After that incident where the teacher caught you trying to do a cartwheel, you weren't allowed to go out to recess with the other kids. You didn't get it - all of your classmates could do cartwheels and didn't get in trouble, so why couldn't you? Your mom said it was because you could hurt yourself more easily than the others, but it just didn't seem fair. She asked you to _promise_ her that you wouldn't try it again, but you refused. So you weren't allowed to go out to recess anymore.

You threw a puzzle piece in anger, and it clinked against the wall. The sound didn't bring you any satisfaction, and you actually kind of wanted to finish the puzzle, so you got up and retrieved it. The special ed teacher had left you alone for a minute, and it occurred to you that you could practice your cartwheels now and no one would be the wiser.

But... what if you really did hurt yourself? Was it true that you were more fragile than the other kids? You knew you were different… you couldn't run as far or fast as everyone else, and Mom always told you to try to "stand up straight," whatever that meant.

You decided not to do anymore cartwheels.

The memory changed.

Gerson was pretty nice, for an old geezer. He was semi-retired… working part-time as a member of the Guard, while spending the rest of his time running a shop in Waterfall. There was this kid, Undyne, who followed him around like a dog. You thought she looked younger than you, but older than Pap. Though, it was kinda hard to tell, since you didn't know how old you and Pap were. Regardless, Gerson was sweet to her, despite them not being related, and it made you a little jealous.

You felt a bit bad, stealing from Gerson. But he just had _so_ much food, and Paps was _always_ hungry. You had to be careful, 'cause Paps was walking around now. Constantly bumpin' into things, and other people. It was cute, but caused a lot of trouble. You could only leave to steal stuff at night, when your bro was asleep and not likely to wander off.

 _It's probably better this way._ You thought as you crept up on the shop, paperclip in hand and ready to pick the lock. Paps was starting to understand stuff now, and you didn't want him to know that you had to steal to eat. You just wanted him to be normal, and not be ashamed of where his food came from. You didn't want him to hold back on eating, like you did. You didn't want him to drink ketchup or eat dog food because there was just nothin' else around. Better to do this sort of stuff while he was sleeping, so he'd be none the wiser.

But, to your surprise, you didn't have to pick the lock. There was already a basket sitting out, just outside the door. It was full of food… healthy, fresh stuff, like apples and bread. Even a half-carton of milk, which was still cold. Greedily, you grabbed it and ran, without leaving so much as a thank-you note.

The memory changed.

You were thirteen, and constantly in pain. You'd been having corrective surgeries all your life, but there was only so much the doctors could do. You had your last surgery six months ago and, in your final post-operative checkup, your doctor had suggested getting a cane.

A cane! Was he crazy? You were a kid, kids didn't use canes! Canes and walkers and scooters and wheelchairs… they were all for old people. How were you supposed to bring a cane to school? How would you hold all of your books, or open your locker, or hold your lunch tray if you had to use a cane at the same time? You were sick of it all, sick of not being able to walk on your own. Sick of having to choose between being laughed at by the other kids or being in debilitating pain from your steadily worsening physical condition. It just... sucked. And there was nothing you could do about it.

Your mom let you pick out whatever cane you wanted (You chose a plain, adjustable, carbon fiber cane, because what did it matter?) and you promptly threw it out as soon as it arrived in the mail. Mom, of course, retrieved it from the trash before the garbage truck came, and reamed you a new one for your attitude.

From that point on, you tried your best to rid yourself of the cane. You left it in stores, in the car… even tried to leave it behind at the beach during a family vacation. But every time, your mom would find it and bring it back. She stopped trying to scold or reason with you, and simply returned it to you patiently no matter how you tried to dispose of it.

At first, you didn't use it at school, but simply hid it in your locker until the end of the day. But people found out eventually, anyway, and the bullying was merciless. It didn't take long until you gave up and started using it as you were supposed to, because the name calling wasn't going to stop, so you might as well minimize the pain you were in while you were at it.

Even so, it took you a full year to stop trying to abandon the cane in department stores.

The memory changed, and you were enrolling Papyrus in school. You remembered signing yourself up at the same time, because Pap wasn't going anywhere without you.

It changed, and you remembered being called "retarded." Having your cane kicked out from under you, having people swipe your schoolbooks from your arms so that they all went tumbling to the floor.

You remembered doing well in school. Uncommonly well. You passed up Papyrus in no time, skipping grades left and right.

You remembered finding out that the reason you didn't have any siblings was because your parents didn't want to risk having another disabled child.

You remembered getting jobs as soon as you were old enough, earning enough money to move yourself and your brother to a house in Snowdin. It was cheap, because the place was rumored to be haunted, but you didn't care. To you, it was a godsend.

You remembered burying yourself in videogames because sometimes, they were your only means of escape. Maybe it was pathetic and nerdy, but you needed it like a drug.

You remembered exploring the basement, and finding a dusty, unfinished time machine.

You remembered applying to colleges, and deciding that you wanted to be a doctor. You wanted to help people... people like you.

You remembered teaching yourself physics by reading textbooks. Monster, human… you poured over them all. You were good at it. Really good. With that skill, plus the ability to read those strange blueprints in the basement… maybe you could fix the time machine and save that man in the pictures.

You remembered college being a safe haven; a place where no one knew you and you could start fresh. Your parents had worried about you living on your own with your condition, but the fact that you tried it and succeeded was incredibly empowering. You made friends, you started dating somebody… everything was looking up.

You remembered yelling at Alphys. _"This is important! You're in those pictures, too! We have to save him! Why won't you help me?!"_ But she refused. Being Asgore's bitch was more important to her than finding out the truth and possibly saving a life.

You remembered buying a game online for $9.99…

"Papyrus, dear, perhaps we should continue this tomorrow." The sound of Toriel's voice snapped you out of your reverie. She was sending you odd glances… shoot. She must've seen that something was wrong. Papyrus, his eyes still glowing faintly, looked disappointed.

"Aw, why? We just started!" Toriel's eyes flicked to you briefly.

"I am sorry, child, but I am feeling a little unwell. I think I need a day to rest." She took her hand from your body's chest, reaching up to gently pull the sheet down over it.

"Oh, do not apologize, Queen Toriel! Everyone needs a break sometimes. Well, everyone except for me!" Papyrus cackled, removing his hand from the body's forehead. You watched, still leaning against the wall in silence, as his eyes dimmed and the steady beat of your heart stopped. Toriel turned off the heart rate monitor to arrest its incessant, continuous beeping. Papyrus, bless his soul, patted your body's head, as though trying to comfort it as it died for the hundredth time.

When he was done, Paps bounded toward the door, stopping as he passed you by.

"Sibling! It seems we have some unexpected free time… I think I am going to visit Frisk and Asgore, since they are working on the garden together today. Would you like to join me?!" Your brother (Half-brother? That didn't sound right; he didn't feel like anything less than your best friend. Your life-long companion. The kid you'd raised from nothing. Even "brother" wasn't quite enough) looked at you hopefully. You wanted to accept, but your eyes slid to Toriel. She was looking at you expectantly.

"Sorry, bro, I think I'll pass today." You spoke, and it felt like it was for the first time. In a way, it kind of was. "Have fun, though." You reached out with your left hand and rubbed Papyrus' head, as though you were ruffling his non-existent hair. He squawked indignantly and swatted you away. You grinned; you didn't know why you'd done that, but you'd have to do it again sometime.

"Suit yourself! There will most certainly be barrels of fun! And mulch! Nyeh heh heh!" Papyrus set off, leaving you wondering if that counted as a pun or not. You watched him disappear down the hallway and into the elevator with a fond smile.

"Orion?" You turned, slowly, to face Toriel, who was wearing a strange expression. She looked like she was unsure whether to be happy or not, but at the same time, her head was tilted and her ears perked as though she were curious about something. You blinked owlishly.

"Yes?" She walked around the examination table so that your human body was no longer between the two of you.

"I sense there is something different about you. Is there something you would like to tell me?" Hmm, so she did notice. Tell her? You weren't sure you could. There were so many thoughts and memories swirling around in your mind. And yet, oddly, you were calm. Calmer than either of your halves had been in a long time. Being yourself was a serene, almost transcendent feeling. Or it was, when you weren't hurtling through the air like last time. And so _quiet_. Just you, alone with all of the experiences of two lifetimes at your disposal.

"Um… you're right. I'm not so sure how to explain it, though. I may need your patience." Toriel clasped her hands in front of her and nodded.

"Of course. You have it." You lifted a hand and found, oddly, that your bones were shaking. Odd, because you didn't feel nervous. You huffed a breath of air and rubbed at your neck.

"It's like… I'm two people, right? But, sometimes… like, right now… I don't feel like two people. I just feel like… one person." You began to pace restlessly. The room was too small for you to go more than three steps without having to turn around and backtrack. "I'm one person, but I'm not! I've got all of the memories of two people. And, I'm also… not really either of them. Or am I? And they might be upset, once I feel like two people again. But _I'm_ not… I kind of… _like_ being one person." You stopped and clenched your jaw. You tried to shove your hands into your pockets, before realizing you didn't have any and just letting them fall to your sides instead. "Does that make sense?" Toriel looked at you for a moment, long and hard, before taking a step toward you.

"Orion… yes, I believe I understand. I would like to test something, if you do not mind." She took a deep breath, "I would like to see your soul. If you are amenable." Your hand went to your chest automatically. Your… soul? Or rather, _souls_ in the plural? You'd only seen them once since the human was absorbed by the monster, and that was over a month ago when Undyne had wanted to prove you were telling the truth about having two of them. After a moment of consideration, you nodded.

"S-sure. I don't see why not." You turned to face Toriel head on, taking a deep breath. She studied you, as if making sure you were ready, before holding out her hand and making a familiar beckoning motion. You heard the three clicks, and felt a tug on your ribcage.

From out of your chest came one large, heart-shaped soul, just like last time. Like before, white dominated the outer edge while a lilac color burned bright at the center. However, unlike when you'd seen your combined souls back in September, the line between the two was… indistinct. Before, there had been a clear separation between the purple heart and its white covering. But now, there seemed to be a gradient. Purple faded slowly into a pale, washed-out lavender, which then disappeared into white by the time it reached the edges. Magic seemed to radiate from them as one; stronger than any soul you'd ever seen in either of your lives. It was extraordinary.

You reached out, as if in a trance, to physically touch your own two souls. They flared brightly at your gentle caress, sending warm waves of magic singing through your bones. Your gaze slid unconsciously toward your human body, lying on that cold, metal table and covered by a white sheet. You felt an indescribable sense of foreboding.

"Oh my…" Toriel gasped, staring intently at your souls. She'd been there last time, when Undyne had invaded your privacy and brought your souls out for all to see. She knew what they used to look like, and what they had become now after only one month. How could so much have changed in that short amount of time?

Slowly, you guided your souls back toward your body. They sunk into your chest, and you shivered. There was a moment of stunned silence from Toriel, before she spoke in a quiet voice,

"Orion… I feel… that your souls are merging together." She finally looked you in the eyes, her expression unreadable. "Please understand, this has never happened in recorded history. I do not know… how this has happened. Or what will happen if we try to separate you." You nodded, feeling calmer than you thought you would've felt if you hadn't been so completely fused together.

"That's alright, Toriel. I've been flying by the seat of my pants this whole time… that's not about to change anytime soon." You gave her a reassuring smile, and she grinned back at you warily.

"But, my child, you do know that… if you go through with this, if you force your two souls apart… you will no longer be yourself. You were telling me earlier that you do not feel like the human or the monster. If you separate them, you will, in a sense, be destroying yourself." You listened to her quietly, taking in what she was saying. The way she acted… it was like you were your own person. In fact, people had been acting that way since the beginning. Only Papyrus and, sometimes, Frisk, had ever treated you like two separate people, and even Pap had stopped making that distinction now. It had always irritated the human half, that people didn't seem to understand how the body-sharing thing worked. But had they been right all along? Was there some sort of third party involved, who only emerged by the synergy of the two souls? Something greater than the sum of its parts…

And, if you allowed them to separate, you would be destroying that. You would, essentially, be killing yourself. Killing Orion…

"I know." You said, feeling confident in yourself despite only having a moment to think about it. "But I have to see this through. It's what they wanted… what they still want." It felt odd to talk about your halves in the third person - they _were_ you, and you, them - but you supposed, in this situation, it was appropriate. "They have lives to get back to. Families. They have so much to do, so much life left to live… and I have nothing." It wasn't entirely true. You were sure that your adoptive monster family would have still been there for you, if you chose to stay as Orion. But it wasn't fair to the human or the monster, who had worked so hard to get back to their own lives. It didn't feel right, to let them slowly die as their souls fused together to form something completely different.

"I see." Toriel said, though she obviously didn't see. You could tell that she didn't understand your decision, but she wasn't going to argue. Maybe, once she got to know the human and the monster as separate people, she would understand. "Well, in that case, I believe I will join Papyrus and my child in the garden. Would you like to come along?" Again, you were getting invited somewhere. And, again, you had to turn it down.

"No, thank you. I think I want to wait here until I separate again." You said, calmly. You felt that it was going to happen at any moment; you'd already lasted so much longer than the first time, you were pushing your luck. It would be nice to be alone - completely alone - for just a couple of minutes. Toriel didn't question it.

"Alright. I will see you for dinner, then." She waited for your nod of confirmation before sweeping out of the lab. You listened to her footsteps as they faded down the hallway, then heard the elevator doors open and shut.

And then, silence.

No one else talking. No one else thinking. It was just you, and your dead body, and your head full of memories. You sighed, leaned your back against the wall, and waited to disappear.


	18. Out of Service

This was not good.

You knew what you'd told Sans before. That you were just going to let whatever was going to happen, happen. That you'd keep your nose to the grindstone… that you'd keep moving toward your goal, trying to ignore the side-effects of whatever was happening between the two of you.

But, holy hell, was that impossible.

You didn't understand what was happening, and it scared you. So, what, was there a _third_ person living in your mind now? In some ways, it felt like it. Orion was different from you and Sans. They were calmer, quieter, and more spacey than either of you. They often became lost in contemplation, carefully thinking through every action and consequence before making even an arbitrary decision. But, in other ways, they just felt like you. You remembered everything they did as if you had done it. Yes, you could pick and choose certain traits that were different between you, certain actions that you wouldn't have taken if it had really been you in control… but really, you couldn't disagree with Orion. Because they _were_ you.

It was easier and less of a headache to think of Orion as their own person, so you ended up going with that.

It was all very confusing, and only became more so as time wore on. You existed in a sort of muddled, existential haze, often confused about who you were and what was going on around you. Sans was even worse. He didn't even try to make sense of it all, and took to just huddling in the back of your mind whenever the two of you were separated.

Of the three of you, Orion was actually the most productive. Things felt a little clearer when you and Sans were united, so they were able to get stuff done. Or at least continue what you and Sans had started. They dutifully worked toward their own destruction by helping Alphys in the lab and supervising Papyrus and Toriel when needed. They even worried about you and Sans… _worried_ , like a mother hen.

They were especially concerned about Sans, who never resurfaced anymore, save when he contributed to being half of Orion. One day, while they were thinking about what to do about it, they had an idea. Sans always felt the most emotional whenever the two (three?) of you found some new information about Gaster. So, perhaps they should invest more time into the Gaster problem, in an effort to get Sans to engage again.

They'd planned on consulting Alphys. After Sans, she was the one who knew the most about Gaster. She'd even worked with Sans on the time machine, for a little while. Before she became the Royal Scientist and she and Sans had gotten into that big fight. Of course, Alphys wouldn't remember any of that now, but she'd at least know a thing or two about the Core, which Gaster invented.

It was a fine plan, however, Orion disappeared before they could enact it. No one living in this damned body knew how to control when Orion formed and when they separated, which just added another layer of confusion to the whole ordeal. Orion was on their way to talk to Alphys when you found yourself suddenly separated from Sans and in sole control of the body.

You stopped in your tracks in the middle of a hallway in the lab, bracing one hand on the wall as you got your bearings. You tried mentally poking Sans, who was a limp parasite in the back of your mind. No reaction. Well… you supposed Orion had a pretty decent idea. You and Sans _had_ planned on talking to Alphys, before all the stuff with the humans and the merging souls distracted you. Maybe that familiar hunt for entries would jolt Sans out of his haze.

Hell, maybe it'd help you both, since you were only handling this marginally better than the catatonic Sans. Maybe all you needed was a fresh lead on the Gaster problem to ground you.

With that in mind, you straightened up, squared your shoulders, and continued on your way. Just as Orion had predicted, Alphys was in the middle of her morning chores, which basically consisted of testing the solutions the two of you had made yesterday to see what had worked and what hadn't. She was frowning at a couple of IR spectra when you walked in, disrupting her thought process.

"O-oh! Orion! Y-you're here e-early." She stammered in surprise. Were you, really? You twisted around to look at a clock that was hanging above the door. Huh. You supposed so. Keeping track of time was one of the many tasks that had become rather difficult lately. Orion was more of a drifter, not good at keeping to a tight schedule. You, yourself, were usually punctual, but were understandably thrown off by your constantly changing mental state.

"Uh, sorry. Didn't mean to interrupt." You shifted your weight from foot to foot.

"No! A-actually, this is good! Come and l-look at this…" She held out one of the graphs to you, and you stepped forward to look. You had to bend way over to get low enough to see it while it was in Alphys' hands. "S-see that peak? I think we finally got the amine group to attach to the right carbon!" You furrowed your brow and plucked the spectra from her hands to examine it more closely. She was… possibly right.

"Huh. We'll have to run NMR to be sure, but…" A grin spread across your face. "We might've actually done it! Wow, I kinda thought it would take longer." You rubbed the back of your neck, grinning like a fool. This was the first time you'd ever made something novel in a lab. In school, you'd always just followed the professor's instructions, sometimes not even getting the final result you were looking for. Of course, in school, you were only given one go at it, whereas here, you were allowed to try and fail as many times as it took. You were able to get comfortable with the procedure, chip away at it until it was perfect. It felt… really nice.

"W-well, I'll get the NMR going, and we'll see!" Alphys said, your excitement leaching off onto her. It wasn't like a synthetic epinephrine substitute was anything particularly new in human medicine, but it was something that you couldn't have asked for in a supply drop without arousing suspicion. So it felt good to be able to make it yourself; to not have to rely on the kindness of others for once.

You watched eagerly as Alphys took a sample from the test tube and loaded it into the NMR instrument. Once the results were back, it would give you a more detailed look at the molecule you'd created. You'd be able to tell for sure whether you'd gotten the correct substance, or if you needed to tweak the procedure more to get it to work. But the downside was that the NMR machine took an awfully long time to get the results back to you. Alphys' machine, in particular, was rather old and clunky.

"It's good that we're getting it started early. Maybe we can even try it out on the body later today?" You asked, hopeful. You'd have to track down Toriel and Papyrus, and you'd have to get some things prepared, yourself. Alphys gave you a strange look.

"Um… w-we could, b-but... a-aren't we going on the day trip to the h-human village today?" Oh. Right. How could you have forgotten? Toriel only reminded you six times during dinner last night. She seemed to realize that your short-term memory was shoddy and went out of her way to help out, but you still forgot.

"Right! Yeah, you're right. We'll have to do it another day…" You looked at the clock again, then looked back at Alphys sheepishly. "Uh… what time are we supposed to meet the humans, again?"

"T-ten? W-we've got a few hours s-still…" You nodded absentmindedly, glancing for a third time at the clock because you'd already forgotten the time. "Orion?" Alphys leaned toward you, looking concerned. "Are you… o-okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine." You gave her a strangled smile. "Fine" was far from the truth, but you didn't think you could explain to her what was going on. It was a miracle Toriel had seemed to understand and was giving you space, but you didn't think most monsters would get it.

"Hey, actually, since we have a few hours... I wanted to ask you something." You changed the subject, having almost forgotten about the reason you'd come down to the lab to begin with.

"W-what is it?" Alphys looked up at you with trepidation.

"Oh, it's not bad, don't worry!" You reassured her, "I was just curious… about the Core?" The scientist gave you a quizzical look, then pushed up her glasses.

"Um, sure? W-what about it?" You shifted your weight, unsure where to begin. What kinds of questions would get you the answers you desired? More importantly, what sort of information would shock Sans out of his haze? You decided to start at the beginning.

"Well, I know it supplies power to the Underground. And the camp on the surface, nowadays. But, what did you do before the Core was made? And who designed it in the first place?" Alphys looked uncomfortable. Already? You hadn't thought your questions had been invasive. She leaned heavily against the lab table, her shoulder blades resting against the closed hood behind her.

"T-this all happened a long time b-before I was born, but I heard that, when the monsters lived in the Ruins, t-they just used c-candles and lanterns. That kind of thing." You tried to imagine that. All of the monsters huddled in the Ruins, with no electricity or artificial day/night cycles, like they had now. It had to have been depressingly dark and gloomy, especially since it was right after they'd lost the war. Most of them would have been able to remember the sunlight and know exactly what they were missing. How… chilling.

"A-and, um, w-we don't really know w-who designed it… it was always… just kind of… there?" You raised your brows, intrigued. Alphys scratched the back of her head. "Um, I mean, when monsters explored far enough to reach Hotland, they just… found it there. In the middle of all the lava. W-we think it's what caused Hotland to get so… well… hot." She finished lamely. You just stared at her, dumbfounded. "L-look, if you want a history lesson, I might not be the b-best person to ask. You should talk to Asgore, or something… I only really know how it works, and even that-"

"How does it work?" You asked, "And what do you mean when you say that it _caused_ Hotland to get hot?"

"Oh gosh, how do I put this? Um…" Alphys wrung her hands. "W-we think... well, _I_ think… that the Core was initially made to fulfill some other purpose. If so, w-whatever they were trying to do, w-whoever made it, was using _a lot_ of power. Like, on par with the power it took to create the barrier."

"Do you think they were trying to use the Core to _break_ the barrier?" You asked eagerly. You thought you were starting to piece this together, but you needed more information to be sure…

"Um, no?" Alphys looked at you oddly. "T-that's not possible, the Core was there before the barrier was even created."

"Right, right." You waved your hand dismissively. The fact that it didn't make sense paradoxically was of little concern to you. Everything related to Gaster was so tangled up in timespace that you wouldn't have been surprised if the giant machine somehow jumped back in time. "Continue."

"O-okay. Well, I've run a lot of tests on the Core… I was an engineer before I was the Royal Scientist, optimizing the Core was kind of m-my job… and I-I've concluded that the Core must have exploded, at some point. T-that explosion was what caused all of the faults in the landscape, and what exposed the lava underneath. And t-that's why it emits such crazy levels of radiation… it was initially supposed to _contain_ that energy, but, when it failed, it just kind of… let it all loose." You listened attentively. So, Gaster built the Core, possibly to break the barrier, but it failed and exploded. Could that explosion have been what caused his demise?

"I s-still don't know what the Core was initially made for… or w-who made it, to begin with. The technology is so advanced, it's… it's beyond what I can even comprehend. And it's far too advanced for the humans to have made it; at l-least they wouldn't have had the technology to do it before the barrier was created. S-so, um… us monsters have just been using the energy it emits to power the Underground." You crossed your arms and thought for a moment, soaking in all of this new information.

"Aren't you concerned? You're using this energy, but you don't know where it's coming from. It could be dangerous... what if it explodes again?" You didn't know much about nuclear power, but, from what Alphys was saying about the Core emitting radiation, the concept seemed at least similar. Weren't nuclear reactors very unstable when they were compromised like that? Alphys looked sheepish.

"W-well, yes, that is a concern… I've tried telling Asgore, b-but he doesn't understand. He tries to keep people from actually going inside of the Core… he spent a lot of gold building elevators that go around it so people wouldn't have to go through it to get past Hotland. B-but he thinks the risk is worth the energy we can harvest from it." She twiddled her thumbs, and you thought you could understand where Asgore was coming from. The Underground was gloomy and suffocating already, but it would be even more depressing if they didn't use the energy from the Core to power their lights and electronics. They needed the Core, as dangerous as it was.

When you didn't reply, Alphys continued, "I m-mean, it doesn't _seem_ immediately dangerous, as long as p-people don't go inside w-without the proper training or a guide. As long as we keep c-cooling it down with the ice from Snowdin, the radiation doesn't get too bad. It's more the ch-changing rooms that get people in trouble. They get lost… and, I d-don't blame them! I'd get lost too if I didn't have the blueprints…" You snapped to attention.

"Blueprints?" You asked, your magic pulsing excitedly in your bones. Alphys looked startled.

"Yes? I f-found blueprints for the Core in the lab a long time ago… they're all gibberish, though! I c-can't read any of them, all I can do is look at the pictures…"

"Wait, wait…" You frowned and shook your head. "You found them… in the lab?"

"O-oh yeah, I guess I should've mentioned… the lab was already here, too. I t-think whoever built the Core lived in the lab and did all their tests here." Right, you supposed that would make sense, given what Entry 7 said about Asgore building Gaster a lab. And the fact that you found the very same entry within the bowels of the lab. "Although, I d-don't know how they traversed from the lab to the Core… it's impossible to walk from one to the other without the elevators, and those weren't here until Asgore had them built…"

"Well, you said the Core's catastrophic failure changed the landscape. Maybe they could've walked back and forth before the explosion." You suggested, staring off into space. You were beginning to get a picture of what Gaster's life might've been like. Before the Core exploded and created Hotland, the whole Underground must've been as cold as Snowdin. Hotland had probably been desolate and flat. Gaster knew the machine was going to be dangerous, he said so in his entry, so he probably kept people away from it. It had been just him and his team out here, going back and forth between working in the lab and building the Core. How lonely it must've been, especially since he didn't seem to like his assigned teammates.

"Oh, r-right. That'd make sense." There was a beat of awkward silence before you blurted out,

"Could I see the blueprints?" Similar to the time machine, the Core's blueprints were probably all written in wingdings. How odd, that Gaster would continue to use the secret language of the necromancer society even after all of the necromancers were gone. Had he created the cypher to begin with? It would make sense, given that it was named after him. Or was he named after it?

"S-sure!" Alphys jumped up, quickly checking on the NMR machine's progress before leading you down the hallway toward the main elevator. "I k-keep all the blueprints upstairs." She explained, and you nodded. You already knew this, having seen her room in the game and in your own timeline.

 _None of this striking your fancy, bone boy?_ You called out to Sans sadly. You hadn't forgotten - you were doing this investigation mainly for Sans' benefit. But, still, he remained huddled, uninterested, in your shared mind. _That's okay. I'll just have to tell you all about it when you get back._ You told him, patiently. No response.

Once you made it upstairs, Alphys rummaged through her drawers until she came up with a pile of rolled up, blue papers. She could barely get her stubby arms around the whole collection, and dumped them on her workbench with a huff. Your mouth twitched, suppressing a grin. Alphys could be pretty cute, sometimes. She put one hand on her hip, using the other to rub her forehead.

"T-that's all of them! Knock yourself out… I t-think I'm going to go back downstairs… I've got some stuff to finish up before we leave." She brightened up, smiling at you nervously. Oh, was Alphys going on the trip to South Ebott, too? You suddenly couldn't remember, but you tried to act like you weren't surprised.

"Er, r-right." Nailed it. "I'll be sure to put these back when I'm done!"

"Okay, t-thanks!" Alphys gave you a wave as she left. Really, you should've been the one thanking her, but maybe it was better left unsaid. Alphys didn't really take gratitude very well; it'd only make her uncomfortable.

As soon as you heard the elevator humming to life, you began to pour over the blueprints. Some of the exterior drawings sure looked like the Core from what you remembered in the game, but other than that, you couldn't make heads or tails of the blueprints. Now that Sans was dormant, you were painfully reminded that you couldn't actually read wingdings. His translations were so seamless that you didn't even notice he was doing it anymore. But, now that he wasn't here, you had no way of reading the little scribbled pictures Gaster had left behind.

You should've guessed that this was going to happen, since you couldn't understand Frisk either, nowadays. Orion had no problem understanding them, and Sans always used to translate their signing for you. But, on the rare occasion the kid tried to talk to you when you _weren't_ Orion, you had no way of knowing what they were saying anymore.

At least this problem was easier to fix than the language barrier between you and Frisk. It was inconvenient, but Alphys had a computer just downstairs. Grumbling under your breath, you rode a conveyor belt down and turned on her computer. You figured she wouldn't mind you using it quickly, just so that you could make a wingdings cheat sheet like the one you'd made way back when you first fell into the Underground.

(You had no idea what had happened to _that_ particular piece of paper. You remembered stuffing it in your pants pocket, but lost track of it after that. Either it got left behind in the previous timeline, or it was still in the blood-stained jeans you'd cut off of your dead body. Either way, you weren't getting it back.)

Thankfully, unlike Papyrus, Alphys actually owned a printer. You were able to make a fast and dirty translation sheet before trudging back upstairs with it.

Unfortunately, translating every single letter on the blueprints was anything but fast. It didn't help that most of what was written on them was gibberish to you, even when translated to English. Alphys was right - this looked _really_ complicated. You doubted even Sans would know what the hell was going on, if he was present. It took you a full hour just to decypher one of the blueprints, and there were still five more to go. Even if you spent another five hours working on this, you doubted you'd be any the wiser on the Core's inner workings. It was just too advanced for you to understand.

You slammed down your cheat sheet and rubbed your temples. Not only were you not gaining any insight, but you weren't waking Sans up at all. You sighed and opened the second sheet of blueprints, just skimming the pictures this time instead of trying to translate every word. Maybe you should just come back here when you were Orion again. They were smarter than you, with all of Sans' knowledge and none of the emotional instability. Honestly, they were better than either of you on your own…

"Aha!" You exclaimed after spotting a familiar, sloppy scrawl in the corner of the page. You recognized the symbols for "ENTRY" at the top; hey, maybe you were learning to read wingdings, after all! Emboldened, you picked up the cheat sheet again and slowly translated,

"ENTRY NUMBER SIX

OF COURSE  
IF I CANNOT TRAVEL TO A DIFFERENT TIME  
THEN I WILL TRAVEL TO A DIFFERENT DIMENSION  
I HAVE AN IDEA OF WHERE TO START  
BUT I WILL NEED HELP THIS TIME

I CAN STILL DO THIS  
I WILL DO THIS"

Well. You'd been wrong about the Core being a machine meant to break the barrier. Gaster had never been trying to break it; he'd been trying to go _around_ it. Create a wormhole to a different dimension. It was a lot like your shortcuts, actually. If the shortcuts went between the Underground and the surface, which they didn't.

However, you were less excited about this new information and far more elated about the impact it had on Sans. As soon as you finished translating and re-reading the new entry, you felt him stirring weakly in the back of your mind.

 _Sans?_ You called out to him hopefully. _Please, man, come back._ You tried to beg and, when that didn't work, you joked, _It's an emergency… there's a spider in here and I really need you to kill it for me._ To your surprise, you felt his rumbling laugh.

 _Really? Is that still all I'm good for?_ You were _overjoyed_ to hear his voice. If he'd been physically in front of you, you would've tackled him in a hug. As it was, you had no way to express yourself other than to shower him in your own happiness. God, you'd missed him _so much_. You hadn't even realized until now…

 _I'm sorry, I'm so fucking sorry… please don't leave me again, please, I'm sorry…_ You knew you were being selfish, but it was maddening, having him avoid you for so long. A drop of something wet fell onto the blueprints. It took you a moment to realize it was your own tear. You were… crying? _I'll do anything, please… what do you want me to do? Do you want me to shut up? I'll shut up. Just, please, don't do that again._

 _Jeez, kid... calm down, or we might make Orion again._ You let out a single sob, then took a shuddering breath. What did he mean by that? Did he think your emotional state had something to do with when Orion formed and when they separated? You didn't have the energy to think about it at the moment.

 _Do you know… how long you've been gone?_ You asked, because you knew how hard it was for him to judge the passing time when he was dissociating like that. Hell, even you were having trouble keeping track of the days lately.

Rather than responding verbally, Sans showed you some muddled images of what he remembered. Just the times when the two of you were Orion, it seemed. Whenever you were in control, his memory was completely blank. He thought it had been a couple days, at most.

 _A week. It's been a week, Sans._ As soon as you said that, he remembered back to the one time you'd left him for half a day, back when you'd been trying to transport your body from the barn to the lab. He remembered how scared he'd felt when he was alone, not knowing when or if you'd come back.

 _I'm not going to apologize._ He felt justified in leaving, after what you'd done. He hadn't really meant it as punishment, but he wasn't sorry for reacting the way he had, either.

 _Okay._ You said, simply. You were just relieved that he was back. Sans was here, Orion was not, and you finally felt like yourself again for the first time in a week. You felt like you knew who you were. It was a little frightening, that your identity was so dependent on the presence of another person.

Your legs shook, and you sank to your knees before they could give out on you. You folded your arms on the table and rested your head on them, closing your eyes. For a long while, you and Sans said nothing, simply letting your thoughts mingle together in one conglomeration of hazy memories and feelings.

This went on for hours, until you realized, without having to look at a clock, that it was time to go. You still had a field trip to attend, after all.


	19. Remember the Monsters

You were in a significantly better state of mind by the time you made your way back to the camp. After shamelessly stealing the blueprint with Entry 6 written on it, you teleported from Alphys' room to the mouth of the Underground, and from there straight to your living room. If nothing else, there was one good thing that had come out of telling the humans about your abilities; you were now free to take shortcuts wherever you liked without feeling the need to hide it. As long as you didn't go past the camp's boundaries, that is.

So far, you hadn't betrayed your deal with the humans. You'd gone back to the barn one last time to collect your meager belongings before moving into your house permanently. And it was truly _your_ house now, there was no use trying to call it by any other name anymore. You'd claimed the bigger bedroom across from the bathroom, draping a plastic sheet over the bed so that you wouldn't get bloodstains on the mattress while you slept. Your cane was propped up in the corner of the room, and Sans' ripped up jacket hung limply in the closet. The Rubik's cube usually sat on your nightstand, but was gone today because Papyrus had taken it with him the last time he was over. The stack of pictures from Sans' basement was tucked safely in the top dresser drawer. Lastly, your laptop was shut away in the bottom drawer, now that Papyrus didn't need the translated necromancy book since he had graduated past the basics (Toriel had long since given up trying to learn it, herself). Your cell phone, containing entries 2-7 as well as the physical necromancy book in its dimensional box, never left your front pocket.

Otherwise, the house was still utterly bare. You found it too impractical to clutter the place with decorations when your body was so huge and lumbering, Sans was too lazy to decorate (not that he'd been around lately to do it, even if he'd wanted to), and Orion just couldn't care less about something trivial like that. The one time she'd come over, Toriel had been almost offended to see the lack of personality. Despite your protests, she'd given you a single picture frame to at least "brighten the place up a little." You would've left it bare, but, for some reason, Orion had decided to put one of the pictures in it and hung it on the wall in your bedroom. They'd chosen the picture from way back when the monsters had reached the surface, in a different timeline. The one where everyone was smiling, soaking up the sunlight, and Papyrus and Sans had their arms around each other's shoulders.

You now knew, from seeing Sans' memories when you were Orion, that it hadn't really been the happiest time. The monsters' experience with humans after that pacifist ending had been much the same as it was now. Shortly after that picture had been taken, they'd been spotted by some human rangers hiking through the woods. In the week before you'd reset the game, the monsters had been chased back into the Underground by force. Asgore was just beginning negotiations with the humans when everything started over again, erasing whatever progress he might've made and everyone's memories along with it. You weren't too sure why Orion had decided to hang up _that_ picture, but Sans seemed happy to see it when the two of you walked into the house together.

You had some time before the trip, so you took the opportunity to clean yourself up a little. You took off your robe and washed it with cold water in the kitchen sink, scrubbing vigorously at the parts that were dark with blood. You used a washcloth to wipe away the red stains on your bones, particularly your wings, which weren't covered by the robe. You even used soft soap and gentle, circular motions to clean the few feathers that stuck to the ends of your wings. You'd never cleaned up this well - at least, not in this body. It was surprisingly soothing. Especially to Sans, who seemed to be in a state of bliss. You didn't realize until you were almost done, but you supposed it probably felt to him like you were giving him a sponge bath.

That was quite… strange, to think about it that way. But if he wasn't going to make it weird, you decided you wouldn't, either.

When you were done, you wrapped a sheet around yourself and took a shortcut to Toriel's house. She was understandably surprised to see you, but agreed to dry your robe using fire magic as soon as she was done having a heart attack from your sudden appearance in her bathroom.

"Stay still, dear!" She said in a sing-song voice as she fussed with your feathers, straightening them out for you. You fidgeted, as you were a little ticklish there.

"I still don't see why you didn't apply to go on the trip." You said, with as much of a pout as you could manage with your half-frozen, skeletal face. Toriel chuckled.

"I am too old to be doing such adventurous things, my child. I will mingle with the humans when all of this has calmed down." You weren't sure it would ever be "calm," but you didn't say anything. "Besides, Frisk is upset that they are not allowed to go. I thought it would be kinder to stay behind with them." You hummed.

"But they've got Asgore. And Undyne, she's not going!" You couldn't help but to be a little smug about that. Undyne had applied to go on the trip, and had been exceptionally enthusiastic about it. But she was turned down, and had to stay behind. You thought it might've had something to do with that almost-riot, and how she'd blown up at you afterwards. It had happened right in the middle of the road; the humans had to have seen it. You wondered if they'd heard anything she'd said. You didn't think so; they probably would've asked you about it in the interview. Or at least, Charlie would have.

As for Asgore, he hadn't applied to go on the trip, either, despite being the one to organize it and champion the idea to everyone else. Orion had asked him about it a while back, and he'd said that he'd wanted to give the commoners a chance to go, instead. Orion had accepted the answer gracefully, but you were still a little bitter that he'd coerced you into going but wasn't going to be coming with, himself. He was still pushing for you to become an ambassador, in his own, sneaky way. You still hadn't given him an answer. Thankfully, Orion seemed to respect your autonomy in this situation, and hadn't interfered with your decision.

"Even so." Toriel replied as she finally finished straightening your feathers to her satisfaction. She smoothed a hand down them one last time before stepping out in front of you to look at her handiwork. Just then, Frisk themself burst in through the front door, an excited smile on their face. Speak of the devil.

The kid ran up to their mom and tugged on her robe. Toriel chuckled.

"Yes, my child?" They began to sign rapidly, and you were immensely pleased to have Sans back to translate for you.

 **Come outside! The plane's here!** Sure enough, just as they were signing it, you heard the distant whir of a helicopter approaching the camp. It seemed like it was about time to go… you felt a nervous flutter in your bones. You began to wander absentmindedly after Frisk, who had darted back outside after making their announcement.

"Wait!" Toriel grabbed your arm and pulled you back. You followed her lead placidly. "Orion, you need your glove, remember?" She snatched a metal contraption from the kitchen table and held it out to you. Oh… right. You'd forgotten about that. It was a good thing Toriel had insisted on keeping it safe for you until today, because you probably would've lost it somewhere.

"Right. Thanks." You said dryly as you took it from her, making a face before pulling it on your right hand. It wasn't really a "glove," in the traditional sense of the word; it was not made of cloth, but of metal. The steel covered your talons, and leather straps wrapped around the bones of your wrist to hold it in place. It was, effectively, a sheath for your hand, designed by Alphys to placate the humans who were grudgingly letting you on this trip.

It was quite uncomfortable. The metal was heavy and interfered with your already limited ability to use your hands. But you supposed, if it made the humans feel better about themselves, you could compromise. It it had been quite a hassle, trying to find common ground with the humans about this one, stupid thing.

Impatiently, you shifted your weight from foot to foot as Toriel strapped you in. The one thing Orion had been adamant about was that the metal glove should be able to be taken off one-handed by you, and you were glad they'd fought so hard for that feature. But, though there was an emergency release buckle, you still needed an extra pair of hands to put the contraptions on.

Finally, when your knife-like fingers were thoroughly concealed, you waved goodbye to Toriel and ran out of the house.

"Stay safe!" She called out to you, just before the front door slammed. You were oddly excited and nervous all of the sudden, even though you hadn't thought of the outing as much more than a hassle and potential disaster up until now. But maybe it could be… fun? Or at least interesting.

When you finally made it outside, the sound of the helicopter was deafening. It was sitting in the middle of the road, right in front of your house, its blades still spinning. There was a small group of monsters (plus Frisk) gathered around Asgore. They all watched from the King's porch as five humans hopped out of the helicopter. They were all in identical uniforms, and you even recognized one of them.

"Charlie!" You called out with a wave. Surprisingly, he heard you over the noise of the helicopter. He turned and beckoned you towards him. The metal on your hand clinked together as you jogged over to the group of humans.

"You got that hand-cover thing? Good." He shouted, gesturing to your right hand. Charlie was the one who managed to convince the other humans to let you have your quick release buckle on the glove, or so you'd been told. You hadn't actually seen the humans since your interview; you'd been talking back and forth with them through Asgore.

"Yeah, thanks for helping out with that." Charlie blinked, seeming surprised that you knew.

"Uh…" He was saved from answering by Asgore and the other monsters approaching, the King holding Frisk easily in one arm. A few of the officers frowned at that sight, but no one said anything.

"Good morning." Asgore's deep, rumbling voice was difficult to hear over all of the noise. Thankfully, Charlie waved to the pilot, signaling them to cut the engine. The sound of the blades died down, though you still heard residual ringing in your ears.

"Mornin'" Charlie replied in his usual, gruff manner. "Everyone ready to go?" He looked, warily, at the group of monsters. You turned to look, too, as you still didn't know exactly who had gotten approved and who hadn't. You saw Papyrus, of course, looking as excited as he had on that day Sans helped him construct his battle body (Which Pap no longer had any memory of, anymore. Just another thing the last reset had taken away). And Alphys, wearing the only dress she owned. Next to her was, of all people, Mettaton.

"Of course!" The robot exclaimed in a smooth, deep voice that was more befitting of an anime character than a real person. "Though, it is truly a tragedy that I cannot appear to the first time to humanity in my real body." Sure enough, Mettaton was sporting his boxy, calculator-like shape, not his more humanoid form. Alphys muttered something about repairs.

"I'm ready!" Papyrus exclaimed, waving his arms around in wild excitement. He was so enthusiastic that he accidentally smacked another monster who was standing behind Mettaton. You hadn't even noticed him until just then, and it took you a moment to place where you'd seen him before.

"Watch it, buddy." Burgerpants mumbled crossly, side-stepping away from Papyrus.

"Whoopsee doopsie! I apologize!" Pap exclaimed, his errant arms snapping back to his sides.

Charlie watched the energetic monsters with incredulity, the other four officers standing stiff and tall behind him. You supposed they could be rather overwhelming, all together like this. It was a good thing this group wasn't as big as you had thought it might be. Though, Mettaton's grand personality had to count as three people, at least.

"Oh, darling, I don't believe we've met!" Speaking of Mettaton, he rolled toward you, his LED lights blinking a curious yellow. "Obviously you already know who I am, but who might you be?" You and Sans both felt a flash of irritation, though yours was admittedly milder. You disliked Mettaton's arrogance, and Sans had a grudge against him simply because Papyrus hero-worshiped him and Sans didn't think he was the best influence. Even now, when Mettaton was paying him no attention, Papyrus was staring at him with wide, enraptured eyes. Ugh. His TV shows weren't even that good. They were just better than nothing, which was what the Underground would've had otherwise.

"Orion." You said, shortly. Mettaton tsk'ed disapprovingly.

"Come on, now! Have a little pizzaz! How about you, gorgeous?" The robot turned to Charlie, who looked quite uncomfortable. You grinned widely, trying very hard not to laugh. It was worth it to have Mettaton around, just for this moment.

"Uhh… Officer Charles Tucker, but you can _all_ call me Charlie." He regained his composure quickly, putting extra emphasis on the "all" as he turned slightly away from the eccentric robot. "And these are officers Samuelsson, Daujatas, Green, and Hernandez. We'll be your guides and protectors for the day." He continued, pointing out everyone as he listed them off. All of the officers looked to be men, except for Daujatas, who was slimmer and had feminine curves. Herndandez waved a little when his name was called, and the other three snickered. He was the class clown, it seemed.

"Here's how it's gonna go… we're gonna take the bird out to South Ebott and land her at the hospital, since it's the only place in town with a helipad. Then, we'll walk around for a while, have lunch at Luini's, and scurry on back. How's that sound?" Even though he'd asked the question, the way Charlie glared at each monster, including Asgore, left no room for argument. Clearly, this outing would be heavily controlled by the humans. Your metal glove felt a little heavier at the thought.

"Hey, wait a minute!" You spoke up, having just remembered something. "Isn't today October 31st?" The monsters all shrugged simultaneously; their calendars were different from the human's, and they still hadn't adjusted to it. One of the officers in the back - Samuelsson, you thought - piped up first.

"Yeah, what's it to ya? You got somethin' more important to do?" He had a heavy, Southern accent and already struck you as being somehow even more confrontational than Charlie. Your mouth snapped shut. No, you didn't have anything to do, but you just couldn't believe that the humans would parade the monsters around in public _on Halloween_ , of all days!

As soon as he got his questions answered from you childhood memories, Sans laughed. He found it to be a hilarious joke, whereas you thought it was quite insulting. Regardless, you couldn't respond because, as a monster, you weren't even supposed to know about the human holiday.

"No." You said begrudgingly. Charlie gave you a weird look, his eyes crinkling at the corners. Yeah, he was definitely in on this joke.

"If that's the case, what're y'all standin' around for? Let's get gone!" Samuelsson asserted, and the other officers yelled in wordless agreement. They were definitely a rowdy bunch, all friendly with each other. They didn't seem disciplined enough to be military; there didn't seem to be a chain of command, even though Charlie had taken the lead at the beginning. You wondered what background they came from, in that case.

"Police, from nearby towns." You jumped when Charlie answered your silent question, waving the helicopter's pilot on as he talked. "We come from all over the place… South Ebott, North Ebott, Stonewall… hell, I think Green's even from Pueblo." You jolted again. Pueblo was _your_ hometown. It was a couple hours North, so that had to be one hell of a commute. "Anyway, we all volunteered for this guard gig; no one signed up 'less they were havin' a rough time at their old position. I didn't really get along with my old lieutenant, myself… and this pays better, anyway." He shrugged. Yeah, you could imagine that Charlie wouldn't put up with anyone bossing him around, so you weren't surprised that his old boss didn't like him. It was nice to know that all of those nameless, faceless guards sitting up in their watchtowers were nothing more than a bunch of misfit police officers. It made them less intimidating to you.

"How did you know I was wondering that?" You asked, accusingly. Charlie just chuckled.

"You're pretty easy to read, y'know. Once you get past the whole…" He gestured vaguely to his own face. You got the message.

You huffed indignantly. You were totally not "easy to read"! You'd successfully lied to plenty of people since falling into the Underground. Hell, you were lying to Charlie right now about being half-human! You were lying to the freaking FBI!

"Am not." You said, childishly. Charlie just barked a harsh laugh, since he couldn't continue the conversation over the roar of the helicopter starting up.

"Have fun, everybody! Stay safe!" Asgore called out as he backed away, Frisk waving glumly from where they sat in his arms. You gave the King a cross look, still annoyed that he wasn't coming with.

You were beginning to see another, more practical reason for that, though. As one of the officers hopped into the helicopter and began waving the monsters toward him, you realized that the vehicle was rather small. You didn't know if you would even fit in it, let alone Asgore.

"Um… you think I could just teleport, instead?" You asked Charlie, who was leading you toward the others. Your nonexistent stomach did a flip as you realized how high up you were about to fly.

Charlie shook his head, his hand hovering behind your back as if he wanted to push you forward, but didn't want to touch you. He didn't have to, though. Seeing Papyrus climb into the flying death machine after Mettaton did the trick; Sans' need to keep his brother safe propelled you forward. Before you even knew what you were doing, you were wedged between Pap and Charlie, the latter closing the sliding door behind the lot of you.

The belly of the helicopter was mostly empty, with only two, long benches facing each other and bars to grab onto above each one. It was very cramped for you, though; you were practically folded in half and still, the back of your head was pressed against the ceiling. Samuelsson reached across the gap between the benches to hand you a pair of headphones, which you turned down with a wave. You didn't have ears - you didn't even know how you heard anything at all - so you weren't worried about the noise damaging your eardrums. In fact, every monster except for Burgerpants declined the ear protection.

You'd all but forgotten that the cat monster was there; he'd been rather quiet so far. You gave him a little wave, but he didn't acknowledge you beyond a curt nod of his head. He seemed to be in a sour mood about something, so you let him be.

As soon as everyone was as comfortable as they were going to get, Daujatas banged her fist on the back of the pilot's chair. The helicopter gave a sickening lurch, and you immediately reached up to grab the metal bar above your head. You buried your face in the crook of your elbow, listening to the deafening roar of the engine and trying to ignore how the ground underneath you jerked and swayed. Sensing your obvious distress, Sans murmured comforting, nonsensical things in your mind.

"O-OH! OH BOY… THIS IS… UM…" Next to you, Papyrus stammered loudly. You cracked your eyes open and turned your head to glance sideways at him. It seemed you weren't the only one who wasn't fond of flying. Paps' bones were rattling as he clutched the overhead bar with both hands. On the far left, Burgerpants was mumbling under his breath. Sans was halfway decent at reading lips, so you thought you saw him say,

"'Go on a vacation,' he said. 'It'll be fun,' he said!"

Alphys, who had somehow ended up across from you wedged between two officers, was hunched in on herself. She looked smaller than ever, and was covering her eyes with both hands.

The only monster who seemed to be enjoying the journey was Mettaton. The robot ignored Burgerpants, or perhaps just couldn't hear him, and reached across the space between the two benches to nudge Alphys with his hand.

"Come now, Alphys dear! Isn't this a wonderful opportunity?" He had to raise his voice to be heard, but it didn't seem to take any effort on his part. Maybe one of the many dials on his square body was a volume control. "We're flying! Think of the mechanics of it all! The… ah… physics! Or whatever." Mettaton's attempt to cheer her up didn't seem to have any effect, as she kept her face planted firmly in her hands.

Meanwhile, the five humans were entirely unfazed. You supposed they probably helped with supply drops, so they were used to helicopters by now. You looked over to your right to see how Charlie was doing, but that was a terrible idea because it presented you with a clear view out the window.

Mount Ebott was stretched out below you, looking far smaller than it had any right to. The helicopter was flying much higher than you and Sans had dared to soar with your makeshift wings, the one and only time you'd been able to use them. While your magic churned and bubbled anxiously at the sight, Sans was more inclined to appreciate the beautiful view. You were just passing by the highest point of the mountain, and its South face was laid bare for the plane's passengers to see. This side of the mountain was more heavily populated by trees, but most of them had already lost their colorful leaves by this time of year. Sans wanted you to lean forward to see if he could spot the now-abandoned barn from here, but you adamantly refused.

Charlie, who had been staring out the window, too, seemed to sense that you were looking his way. He turned around and, seeing your queasy-looking expression, began to laugh. Great. There was no way this guy was ever going to be intimidated by you again after this, though perhaps that wasn't such a bad thing.

You spent the rest of the flight with your eyes shut firmly, though not before prying one of Papyrus' hands off of the bar and holding it in your own. He squeezed your fingers until it was almost painful, but you were glad for it.

Finally, you felt yourself descending. Your ears didn't pop like a normal human's would, but you could still sense the change in elevation somehow. Even if you hadn't been able to tell, the sharp _THUD_ of the helicopter touching down was enough of an indication that you had reached your destination.

"WELL, THAT WAS ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING!" Papyrus exclaimed as the noise of the blades began to die down. Charlie, having torn off his headphones as soon as possible, laughed again before throwing open the door.

"If I had a stomach, I think I'd be sick." You deadpanned, to which Burgerpants added,

"I _have_ a stomach, and I _am_ going to be sick!"

"Good thing we're on top of a hospital then, huh?" Hernandez said with a wink as he hopped out of the helicopter after Charlie and Green. It was Alphys' turn to exit, but she kept her head in her hand as she waved you forward with the other.

"Go on, O-Orion. I j-just n-need a m-m-minute." Her stuttering was quite bad, so you did as she requested and let her be. You squeezed Paps' hand one more time before letting go, hopping out of the flying deathtrap and onto solid ground.

Your knees were shaky, your muscles tense, and your eyes all but blinded by the direct sunlight. You blinked as you stretched, shading your face with your left hand. The metal on your talons clacked together as you reached your arm up, bones popping. You stood up to your full height and shook out your wings, reveling in the feeling of not being folded up in that cramped helicopter. Only then did you finally take a look around.

You were, indeed, on a helipad; the big "H" underfoot gave it away. You wandered unconsciously toward the edge of the roof to look over at the town below. To you, the view was nothing special; the hospital you were on top of was by and large the tallest building in town, and the view from the top consisted mostly of the roofs of residential houses. To Sans, though, the sight was spectacular.

There were so many humans! And this was a _small_ town? Yes, he'd seen the huge skyscrapers of North Ebott looming in the distance, and he knew exactly what big cities looked like from your memories, but it was another thing to see it in person. All of those people down there, coming in and out of the hospital. Driving their cars in and out of the parking lot in such an orderly fashion. There weren't so many that he couldn't have counted them, but just seeing them all bustle around, like each individual person had somewhere important to be, was astonishing to him. It was both intimidating and awe-inspiring.

"Never seen so many people, huh?" Charlie came up behind you while the other human officers were trying to coax Alphys out of the helicopter.

"Never seen so many humans." Sans corrected him as the two of you seamlessly switched control of the body. "Plenty of people in the Underground." Charlie hummed, but didn't disagree.

"Well, ready to get down there and mingle with 'em?" Intimidation quickly won out over awe. Oddly, _you_ were more nervous than Sans, who responded with a silent thumbs-up.

"Good man." Charlie grunted and thumped you on the back. You were annoyed at the misgendering and would've corrected him if you hadn't been so shocked that he'd touched you so casually. Charlie didn't make a big deal about it, probably didn't even realize he'd done it, and simply turned to walk back to the larger group in the middle of the roof. You were left to follow him, irritated that you hadn't gotten in the last word.

"Alright, folks." Samuelsson started up as soon as you rejoined the group. Someone must've managed to convince poor Alphys to come outside. Probably Mettaton, since she was holding tightly onto his arm. "We're gonna take the stairs all the way down, since some of us ain't gonna fit on the elevator." He shot a glance at you, and you shrugged helplessly. "After that, we're just gonna take a stroll up Main Street, nice 'n easy, 'til we get to Luini's, like we talked about."

"We're not going into any shops, but feel free to look around in the windows if you'd like." Green piped up, then Charlie added,

"Don't pay any mind to people gawking or takin' pictures… they won't do you any harm. If anyone approaches you, you can talk to 'em-"

"But we don't have all day," Daujatas interrupted, "Keep it brief."

As everyone absorbed all of these instructions, Sans shuffled over to stand by Papyrus. Sure, there were human guards here who seemed nice enough, but he didn't trust anyone to keep his brother safe except himself. And even then, he'd failed too many times on that front…

 _We'll both look out for him._ You thought, trying to be reassuring.

 _Not very comforting, since it was you I was supposed to be protecting him from in the first place._ That shut you up faster than anything could. You both went quiet, and there was a strange, tingling feeling in the back of both of your minds. Surprisingly, Sans apologized, _Sorry, that was blunt. And this isn't a good time to be dragging that up._ You agreed, and the two of you moved onto more pressing matters. The tingling abated.

"Oh, sibling, aren't you excited?!" Papyrus clutched your arm and bounced on his heels. You were a little slow, but, after a beat, you looked down at him and smiled back nervously.

"Yeah, bro." You glanced around at the others. Mettaton was talking to Alphys at a million miles an hour, making grand gestures with his hands and patting her back every so often. Alphys looked like she needed a paper bag; perhaps it wasn't such a good idea for her to come on this trip. But she loved humans so much, you knew she'd get past this and enjoy herself. Burgerpants, meanwhile, was off to the side talking to Daujatas. It was reassuring, to see a human and a monster making casual conversation.

"Just make sure you follow the rules, okay?" You weren't entirely sure if it was you or Sans speaking to Papyrus, but it didn't particularly matter. The two of you shared the same sentiment. "And if anyone ever bothers you, in any way, you just yell for me." Pap scoffed and let go of your arm to put his hands on his hips.

"I will have you know that I am not a child! I can take care of myself, thank you very much!" He huffed, but his words carried no real heat. Sans remembered many times when those very words had been spoken to him in a different timeline. "...But I will." Pap finished by muttering under his breath. You chuckled and reached out to rub his head, a habit you'd picked up from Orion. Papyrus let out an outraged wail and ducked out from under your hand. It only made your smile wider.

When you looked up, you saw Charlie watching you from where he stood with the other guards. He had an unreadable expression on his face, but seemed to snap out of it when he saw that you caught him staring.

"Okay, okay, can we go now? We got a schedule to keep." He turned and walked briskly toward the only thing on the roof aside from the helipad; a nondescript, white door. Hernandez and Daujatas went in front with Charlie, while Green and Samuelsson hung back to walk behind the group of monsters. You stayed back by them, already determined to keep Pap in your sights at all times.

The staircase was just as interesting as the door. You didn't run into any humans; presumably, they all preferred to use the elevator. The descent was filled with excited whispers from Papyrus, Mettaton, and eventually Alphys. The officers were quiet, having slipped into some kind of business mode. You did, too, your nerves taking a backseat to your desire to protect your friends. You really hoped this first encounter between the monsters and the human public would go well, but you were braced for the worst.

In no time at all, your big, inter-species group reached the ground floor. Charlie threw the door open, revealing… a plain, normal, hospital reception area. You weren't sure what you'd been expecting. More fanfare, you supposed… maybe a crowd of curious humans? But you were struck by how _ordinary_ it all was. You'd never been to this particular hospital before, but they were all the same. Big, mostly empty waiting room, with a check-in counter. You couldn't see if there were any receptionists behind the counter due to the angle at which you'd entered the room, but you could see a few people sitting in the waiting area. A little girl, a bit younger than Frisk, was the first to notice your entrance. Her big, wide eyes watched in shock as the monsters filed silently out of the door. You stopped in the middle of the doorway, frozen. The monsters had been quiet enough that no one else in the waiting room had noticed them yet; just this girl. And she was staring right at you, the biggest and scariest monster of them all.

Sans seized control from you and broke the moment with a bright smile and a wink.

The girl erupted into giddy laughter, tugging on her mother's sleeve and pointing enthusiastically to your group. With that, yet another barrier between humans and monsters was shattered. The mother looked at your group and let out a strangled noise, halfway to a scream. That alerted the other hospital patrons to your presence, and the room was suddenly filled with shocked gasps and murmurs. Another kid toward the back of the room - older this time, possibly a young teenager - stood up and leaned against the back of one of the waiting room chairs, staring with his mouth agape.

" _Cool"_ He exclaimed, and you laughed breathily, relieved. People's reactions ranged from fear, to curiosity, to disbelief, but no one seemed hostile. Not one person looked angry or at all threatening. Maybe this wouldn't go so badly.

"HELLO, HUMANS!" Papyrus yelled with an enthusiastic wave. A couple of the officers closest to him cringed at the volume. Mettaton looked like he was about to say something, but Daujatas cut him off.

"Just passing through, people. Don't be alarmed." The robot looked scandalized, but let out a quiet "humph" and said nothing more. Alphys waved nervously to the humans, but only the little girl waved back. Burgerpants was trying to hide himself behind Mettaton, and it was actually pretty effective since Mettaton was bigger than him in every way.

You hovered behind Papyrus, just taking it all in. Your eyes darted between each human. You felt… very out of place. Not just with the humans, but with your group of monster friends as well. You weren't a monster, not at your core. And yet the humans gawked at you as if you were. A part of you wanted to scream, _I'm one of you! Don't you see?!_ But of course, they didn't. It was another harsh reminder that you _needed_ to get back into your proper body. You didn't belong here. You didn't belong anywhere. It'd drive you mad, eventually.

Sans, however, didn't seem bothered. He was just fascinated by the humans.

 _They have special buildings, just for healing. That's so interesting… we were never this organized. It's way more efficient, and clever._ He thought to himself, though you were too wrapped up in your own existential turmoil to listen to him ramble about hospitals.

It was only a few, long strides before you were at the front door. You almost wished you could've stayed for longer; your magic was pounding in your bones, and you could've used the time in the quiet, almost empty hospital to gather yourself. But, no, Daujatas was apparently on a tight schedule, as she set the pace by hurrying everyone out the door and onto the street.

Outside, it was bright, but cold. You wouldn't have known, had Burgerpants not shivered and hugged his own arms. He was the only monster affected by the cold, as Alphys was cold blooded, Mettaton was a robot, and you and Paps were made of bone. The air was crisp, and the sight of a snowcap on top of the nearby mountain made it seem somehow colder.

Despite the frigid temperature, there was an odd number of people out and about. For such a small town, there were an awful lot of people milling around on the sidewalk, walking slowly with their noses tucked in their jackets, as if they had nowhere in particular to be.

"Nosey." Green, who was just behind you, muttered to himself. This single word made you wonder - how much, exactly, did the humans know about this monster visit? You hadn't really thought about it until now, but surely the citizens of this town had been told ahead of time that monsters were going to be roaming around? You easily made your way to the front of the group, outpacing everyone with your long legs, until you were right next to Charlie. You hunched over so he could hear you ask in a low voice,

"What'd you tell these people?" Charlie didn't look up at you, too busy scanning the small crowd for potential threats. Your group had made its way out of the parking lot by now, and they were all walking down the unusually wide sidewalk. It was almost more of a footpath than the kind of dinky sidewalks you were used to; but, then again, you did live in a larger, more cramped town. It made it easier for your group to stick together, so you were grateful for it.

"Not much, just that a small group of monsters were gonna be visiting for the day. People were allowed to leave yesterday if they wanted, but no one's been allowed into town since the announcement. There's a roadblock on both sides of the highway." That seemed… pretty smart, actually. You supposed that, if they hadn't blocked people from entering, there'd be way more tourists in South Ebott than usual today. You were glad that the humans had thought this through. "Didn't tell 'em we'd be walking up Main Street, but I guess everyone kind of assumed. It's the only place in town where anything ever happens."

Satisfied with the answer, you nodded and slipped back to the rear of the group. The officers had made quite a formation, with Daujatas in the lead, Charlie and Hernandez flanking the left and right, and Green and Samuelsson bringing up the rear. The monsters were essentially herded to the middle, unable to break off from the group without someone seeing them. Conversely, no humans could approach without facing the scrutiny of the fully uniformed, armed officers. Far from striking up conversation, the civilians parted like the Red Sea, giving the group of monsters a wide birthe. You felt more like you were being paraded around, rather than mingling with the humans. It was all a bit silly.

The farther you walked up the street lined with small, family owned shops, the more word seemed to spread about your location. Soon, there was a pretty significant-sized crowd walking parallel to your group on the other side of the street. Traffic had all but stopped, as the pedestrians were taking up too much space on the road. It really was like a parade, especially because Papyrus and Mettaton kept waving to all of the curious humans.

The more people gathered around you, the more nervous you became. Sans was in control most of the time, but even he was a bit anxious. People were taking pictures, pointing, talking loudly about you to one another… it was far more attention than you were used to. You and Sans felt like it was your first day in this body again; all awkward and stumbly, with your wings flitting around like you didn't know what to do with them. You were hyper aware of the itchy, gross feeling of blood dribbling sluggishly down your bones. Every now and then, a couple drops would fall, staining the sidewalk. You felt ridiculous.

Soon, as you made it over the crest of a hill, you spotted a rather large crowd of humans in the distance. They were purposefully blocking the road, though not the sidewalk your group was walking on. You were filled with dread when you saw that they were holding up signs and chanting in unison.

"Send the monsters back! Send the monsters back!" They shouted together rhythmically, as though it were rehearsed. As you inched closer, you saw that their faces were scrunched up in anger. However, some of the humans who had been following you for a while gave the protesters cross looks. There was clearly a difference in opinion among many of the citizens of South Ebott.

You only grew more nervous as the shouts grew louder, as did the other monsters you were with. In the back, Samuelsson and Green had to urge the group onward. Papyrus slowed until you caught up with him, staring at the shouting humans with wide eyes. He grabbed onto your arm and said in a terrible stage whisper,

"Sibling, why are those humans saying such things?" He didn't sound afraid, just curious. You and Sans brainstormed together for a moment before coming up with a suitable answer.

"It's because they're afraid, Pap. They're scared of us, and frightened people do irrational things sometimes." Sans spoke for the two of you, and Papyrus nodded as though it made perfect sense to him.

"Of course! But I'll show them that they have nothing to be afraid of!" Pap jerked forward, as though he was going to run over to the humans and greet them, but Sans lurched to grab both of his arms.

"Don't." He growled. Poor Pap looked surprised and hurt as he was held in place, with Sans standing right between him and the humans. Sans sighed and let his arms fall. "Just, not now, okay? These things take time… you can't fix it right away." You couldn't see Papyrus' reaction, as you were being ushered forward by Samuelsson, whose mouth was twisted into a grimace. But your skeletal brother made no further move to talk to the protesters, which was all that mattered at the moment.

It seemed to take forever to pass by the angry crowd. You were so tense, you felt your muscles quivering. Your feathers rustled, and your eyes darted from face to face, searching for a potential attacker. You were so focused on them that you hardly noticed when Charlie fell back to walk by your side.

"Don't get all worked up about it, Orion. They're completely peaceful, just makin' their opinions heard. Look, they cleared a space for us to pass through, and everything." He was right about that; while the protesters had blocked the road, they'd still left open the whole sidewalk for your group to continue on their way.

You did so without incident. No one tried to throw anything at you, or breach the barrier that the officers had formed around you, or even really say anything terribly vulgar. But just because it was nonviolent didn't mean that it wasn't scary. Although things had turned out fine this time, who knew how far some of these people would take their protests later down the line. Being a human, you felt... oddly responsible. For how your own species treated the monsters, and for the future of monsterkind on this human-dominated planet.

You felt that tingly feeling again, way in the back of your mind. You reached your left hand up to scratch your skull. It didn't help.

It wasn't long after that before your group reached a small, family-owned restaurant with a sign that read "Luini's" written in proud, cursive letters above the door. A chalkboard outside detailed their menu items, which were limited. All they had to offer was pizza, something you'd never heard of called "pizza fritta," and a few different pasta dishes. Including none other than-

"SPAGHETTI!?" Papyrus gasped, his eyes lighting up. He rushed into the establishment without a second thought, a bell over the door tinkling as he burst through.

"Paps!" You called worriedly, pushing into the restaurant after him. Why couldn't he have waited for the officers to scope the place out first?!

As it turned out, you needn't have worried. The place was utterly empty, save for the employees. You figured they must've been given a heads-up beforehand, because no one seemed too shocked to have two, tall skeletons bursting into their restaurant. Well, they were a bit taken aback, but not to the level you would've expected if they hadn't known you were coming.

"W-welcome!" A pot-bellied man stepped from behind the counter and smiled, but still kept a good distance away from Papyrus, who was standing in the middle of the room and looking rather lost. As soon as he was spoken to, Paps' eyes lit up again.

"Ah! Hello, human! I would like to order your finest spaghetti, please!" By this point, the others from your group had filed into the restaurant. The officers visibly relaxed once the door shut behind them; they obviously felt safe here. Your shoulders slumped, too. You couldn't hear the protesters anymore and, though there were still a lot of people hovering around outside of the building, they were easier to ignore when there was a wall between you and them.

"U-um, P-Papyrus… I t-think we're s-supposed to sit d-down, and then the w-waiters ask us what w-we want. R-right?" Alphys looked to you, pushing her glasses up her nose. You gritted your teeth; she shouldn't have asked you as if you were an expert on human customs. It was a little suspicious and, sure enough, Charlie was looking between the two of you with one eyebrow raised.

"How should I know?" You grunted and shrugged. Alphys' eyes widened as she realized her mistake.

"O-oh! I d-don't k-know… um… Mettaton? D-do you k-know?" Before the robot could answer, Samuelsson interrupted,

"Oh, t' hell with it… yes, we hav'ta sit down first." Mettaton crossed his arms and huffed, obviously annoyed that the officers kept cutting him off before he could speak. You and Sans found it hilarious.

Once all of you were seated at the only corner booth in the restaurant, the round-ish man from earlier came over with the menus. He looked nervous… understandably, you supposed. But he still had a big smile on his face.

"Hello and welcome to Luini's! Can I start you off with anything-"

"Spaghetti, please!" Papyrus piped up with a big smile, not even looking at his menu. You snorted and took it from him, stacking it on top of yours since he obviously wasn't going to use it. The guy glanced at Charlie, the officer nearest to Pap, as though to ask if he was joking. You bristled, then relaxed when the waiter chuckled good-naturedly.

"A man who knows what he wants! Good! I'll start your order right away. Anyone else?" Since Papyrus started the trend, everyone else ended up ordering right away, too, giving only a cursory glance at the menu since there were so few items on it, anyway. All of the officers ordered that fritta thing, so you went ahead and got the same. With how at ease they were here, they'd clearly been to this place before. They probably knew what the best item on the menu was.

Once you were left alone, an awkward silence fell over the table. What was there for five humans and five(ish) monsters to talk about? Hernandez came to the rescue by turning to Mettaton,

"So, you're some kinda entertainer down in that cave? How does that work?"

And that was all that was needed to get a conversation flowing. Mettaton launched into a long explanation on all of his television and film endeavors, only to be interrupted by Daujatas, who wanted to know how the monsters had the equipment to film and distribute all of these shows. Alphys stuttered as she explained how human technology often fell into the Underground through waterfalls, and that opened up a whole new barrell of questions.

You didn't contribute much to the conversation, but kept a wary eye on things. You felt like it was your duty to keep the others from revealing sensitive information, but you never had to step in and change the subject. The officers' questions were innocent, and your friends' answers were equally so.

Even when the food came, conversation continued. "Pizza fritta" ended up being deep fried pizza, and the officers laughed at your amazed, blissed-out face when you took your first bite. Why had you never heard of this before?! It was the best damn pizza you'd ever tasted!

Papyrus went real quiet when he got his food. Once you realized he was no longer enthusiastically answering all of the humans' questions, you looked down at him and asked what was wrong.

"This spaghetti…" He closed his eyes and took a deep, dramatic breath, "...IS DELICIOUS!" The humans at the table jumped, and you smiled. "It is far superior to my own! I know, you think this is impossible to believe, but it's true! I must speak to the chef and learn his secrets!" He leapt out of the chair and, with no further warning, bounded over to the front counter.

"Pap!" You scrambled after him, knocking over a cup with your wing in your haste. You paid it no mind. Why the hell did Papyrus have to keep running off like that?!

"Human! I would like to speak to the human who made my spaghetti!" He leaned heavily on the counter as he talked to the waiter who'd served you. The guy smiled and wrung his hands.

"Of course, just this way!" You followed close behind Papyrus as he was led back to the kitchen. You weren't about to let yourself get split up from Pap, but the door to the kitchen was far too small for you to fit through. Even Papyrus had trouble squeezing through, so you settled for standing in the doorway, holding the door open as you watched him mingle with the bewildered human chefs.

"He's your brother, am I right?" You started as the waiter came to stand next to you, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall.

"The family resemblance gave it away, huh?" Sans joked with a slightly strained, half-grin.

"Actually, it was the way you look out for 'im." He said with a knowing smile. "But you don't have to worry about him here. We respect everyone, even monsters!" He seemed genuine, but you couldn't help but to notice how one of the chefs in the back room shied away from Papyrus, shooting you uncomfortable looks from where you stood. The other chef was at least talking to him, but he was sweating and backed away whenever the skeleton got too close.

The truth was, the humans were divided. If there was one thing you learned today, it was that their feelings about monsters were complicated and could not be generalized. The officers, who had to watch monsters everyday for a living and were desensitized to the sight of them, seemed pretty friendly and willing to give the monsters a chance. The people in this restaurant, along with many of the curious faces on the street, seemed to want to be understanding but had a hard time getting past their instinctual fear. Others were strongly opposed to monsters, and were all varying degrees of angry and afraid. The only constant was the no one agreed on what to do. It had been three months since the monsters emerged, but it would be many more before anyone came to a consensus about how to proceed. And the scariest thing was that, no matter what their views, _everyone_ had an opinion. Not one person was indifferent to what happened with the monsters. With so many strong opinions, it would be impossible to compromise with everyone.

"I hope so." You muttered absentmindedly. The waiter, who you assumed now to also be the owner of the establishment, didn't have time to respond before Papyrus emerged from the kitchen, proudly clutching a sheet of paper.

"Look, sibling! I have procured the human's secret recipe for spaghetti. Can you believe they don't use any sprinkles, and yet it still tastes so delicious?! Amazing!" Sans cocked his head to peek at the recipe. It seemed legit, and unlikely to poison Papyrus if he tried to make it. He considered that a win.

"Sounds great, Pap. You gonna try it out when we get home?"

"You bet!" You cringed at the thought of eating more spaghetti. But hopefully, with this new recipe, Papyrus' cooking would improve. You could only dream.

With that done, the two of your returned to the table. By that time, everyone else was done eating. Pap got the rest of his spaghetti boxed up, and Sans shoved the remaining quarter of the pizza fritta in his mouth. As such, you were the last person at the table.

"Coming?" Daujatas called to you, impatient as always.

"Yup!" You answered through your full mouth, but hesitated. Everyone at the restaurant had been very kind to your group, all things considered. Plus, it seemed like they'd closed the whole place down just for you, because no other humans had come in while you were here. Charlie had already left a generous tip, but you thought you could do one better.

You dug in the pocket of your robe and, sure enough, there were a few gold coins rattling around in there. You tossed them all on the table, because why not? They'd definitely get a better exchange rate for them than the monsters did. Maybe they could add a few more items to their menu with the extra cash.

With that done, your group bid farewell to the portly waiter/owner and ventured outside again. Instantly, you felt a change in the atmosphere. It felt even more tense outside than it had before you ate. More people must've caught wind of your location, as there was a larger crowd straining to get a look at you. The protesters had moved closer to Luini's, and people seemed to have gotten bolder. Some were even standing on your side of the sidewalk.

The officers sensed the change, too. They got back into their previous formation, but kept the monsters closer together than before. Your arm kept bumping into Papyrus' shoulder as you walked.

"We're gonna walk quickly this time, no talking to anyone anymore." Green murmured to everyone. No one argued, not even Papyrus or Mettaton. Samuelsson kept his hand resting on his holstered gun.

As you walked, the protesters were more aggressive than last time. They shouted the same things, but with angrier expressions. They moved with you as you walked, stiff-backed and eyes trained forward. You kept a hand on Papyrus' back, making sure he stayed in the middle of the group so that no one could get up in his face. The tingling was a sharp presence, now in the forefront of your mind and impossible for you or Sans to ignore.

Just as many of the humans were starting to lose steam and leave your group alone, one particularly angry-looking man marched up to the front of the procession. Even though you were walking near the back, you still heard him clear as day.

"You freaks have some real nerve coming to our town! You think we're all gonna make nice and sing kumbaya together? I know how this is gonna end! You're gonna steal our land and our resources 'til there's nothin' left for us!" He ranted and raved, blocking the sidewalk with outstretched arms. Your group was forced to stop.

Charlie walked up to him. You couldn't see his face from where you stood, but his shoulders were set in a stiff line.

"I have to ask you to move, sir." He demanded sternly. The man just laughed.

"And you people! You're the real problem here, enabling these freaks… inviting them onto our land! What the hell side are you on, huh?"

"This is your last warning. Step aside, or I'll have to detain you." For a brief moment, the man seemed conflicted. Then, with a newfound resolve, he lunged at Charlie, his hands going for the gun on the officer's belt.

Immediately, the tingling sensation burst forward, and you were suddenly Orion. Without raising so much as a finger, you lifted the man up and _threw_ him clear across the street. His body barrelled into a cluster of protesters, knocking them down like bowling pins, before he slammed into the wall of a store behind them. Had those other humans not been there to break his momentum, you were sure the force of the impact would've snapped his spine. As it was, the man managed to get up on shaky hands and knees, wheezing from having had the breath knocked right out of him.

"We're done here." You said calmly, but with undeniable authority. With no further discussion, you grabbed Papyrus' arm and continued your march back to the hospital.


	20. Veni, Vidi, Vici

You got exactly seven steps dragging Papyrus behind you before Daujatas, the first officer to get over her shock, ran after you.

"W-wait! You can't do that!"

"Just did." You growled lowly. Papyrus dug in his heels, forcing you to stop lest you accidentally pull him right off his feet.

"SIBLING?! ARE THOSE HUMANS OKAY?!" He yelled shrilly, his voice pitched high with concern and fear. You blinked and turned to look at the damage you'd caused. The man you'd thrown was being helped up by others - he didn't look too bad. Winded and certainly bruised, sure, but definitely not dead. The other people who'd been in the way were getting up on their own, all of them confused. One of them was an older guy who was clutching his own back. You felt a stab of guilt, but cast it from your mind. You didn't have time for that, you had to get Papyrus back to the camp, where he'd at least be safer.

"They'll be fine." You said, simply, before tugging on Papyrus' arm again. He wouldn't budge.

"YOU CAN'T JUST THROW PEOPLE AROUND, ORION! THAT'S NOT VERY NICE!" Now that he saw that no one was dead or maimed, Papyrus' fear turned into cross scolding. Still, though, there was an edge to his nagging that wasn't usually there. He really meant it this time… he really was angry with you. Or, at the very least, annoyed.

"Hm." You grunted and looked around again. Everyone was staring at you. Samuelsson had even drawn his weapon, though the muzzle of the gun was pointing down toward the sidewalk. A bead of sweat formed on your brow. Perhaps you hadn't thought this through.

"Okay… alright. Everyone, follow me. We're going back to the helipad. Daujatas, Samuelsson… stay here and help these people." Charlie slipped into the role of the leader, and everyone seemed relieved. Except for Samuelsson, who looked like he wanted to argue. He glared at you suspiciously before slowly tucking his gun back into its holster.

"Alright! Let's get moving!" From the back, Hernandez began to walk, forcing the monsters forward. Daujatas and Samuelsson hung back, approaching the bewildered, angry, and confused humans with caution. You watched them until the rest of the group caught up with you. Papyrus gently tugged on his own arm, and you reluctantly let him go. You hadn't realized how tight you'd been gripping him.

"Sorry, bro." You seemed to say that to him a lot, as Orion. Papyrus harrumphed and rubbed his arm.

"It'll be alright, sibling." His tone was much quieter than usual. You certainly hoped he was right.

With that, Papyrus broke off from you to walk next to Mettaton and Alphys, with Burgerpants trailing behind them, staring at you openly. You turned away from the monsters and fell into step next to Charlie.

Things became very quiet once your group put a little distance between yourselves and the protesters. No humans followed you anymore, and no one within the group chatted amongst themselves. You felt yourself slowly falling apart, separating into two beings again. Usually, the process happened instantaneously, so this slow crumpling of your souls felt quite disconcerting.

"I can't do anything right." You said, to no one in particular. You didn't even know who was saying it. The human, the monster, the amalgam… it didn't matter. You all felt the same. You were all equally bad at protecting the people you loved.

"Well, I dunno about _that_ " Charlie must've heard you. You looked down at him curiously, your head tilted. "It could've been worse if you hadn't done anything. Who knows? It's not like we can go back in time and try again." Sans laughed bitterly. And it was definitely Sans this time; you'd fully separated again.

"Yeah, wouldn't that be crazy?"

Everything was a mess after that. You got back to the roof of the hospital just fine and barely even registered the helicopter ride. It began raining sometime during the flight, the clouds rolling in out of nowhere. All of the monsters scurried off as soon as possible under the pretense of getting out of the rain. Alphys and Burgerpants tried their best to shield Mettaton, who winced and sent off sparks whenever a drop of water touched him. You didn't know where Papyrus had gotten to - he took off so fast. You blinked, and you were suddenly left alone with Charlie. The other two officers hadn't even bothered to get out of the helicopter.

"Look, I dunno what's gonna happen." He admitted, squinting his eyes closed as rain splashed on his face. "But don't leave the camp, okay? You'll only make things worse for yourself." You felt a flutter of fear in your stomach.

"That bad, huh?" Sans asked glumly. Charlie just grimaced and got back on the helicopter. You stood back and watched it take off, significantly lighter now that it was lacking five monsters and two officers.

As soon as they were out of sight, you marched purposefully over to Asgore's house, paying no mind to the many puddles you stepped in along the way. A flash of distant lightning illuminated the darkening sky as you knocked loudly on his door. He threw it open right away. Before he could say anything, you growled,

"I want to take the ambassador job."

Sans and Asgore were equally surprised.

 _Okay, wasn't expecting that._ Your partner admitted, _The hell brought you to that conclusion?_ You ignored him for now, figuring he could answer his own questions just by taking a second look at your thoughts.

"I am glad, but what makes you say this?" Asgore asked as he looked you up and down with a concerned expression. You looked down at yourself, too, and could see why he might be worried. You were soaked to the bone (ha), you had mud from the wet, dirt road splattered up your legs and the front of your robe, and the water that dripped from your wings and shoulders was tinted pink with your own blood. You seemed to produce more of it when you were under stress. You held up your hands, and saw that they were shaking. The stupid metal glove clicked loudly whenever you trembled. With another low growl, you tore off the emergency release latch, letting the contraption fall loose and clatter to the ground. Let it stay there; you weren't likely to need it anymore, anyway.

"Can I come in?" After all, you had some explaining to do, and you weren't about to do it while standing in the steadily worsening storm.

"Of course." Asgore stepped aside to let you through.

As soon as he shut the door behind you, you began talking. You told him everything that had happened, from the curious humans in the hospital, to the protests, to Luini's, and, finally, the incident with Orion. You spilled the beans about that, too; the fact that you weren't always sure who was controlling your body anymore. You paced as best you could in his living room, rocking from foot to foot when you didn't have enough room to take a step.

"And the whole time, I was just feeling so _responsible_ for everything the humans did. I don't want them to hate you guys. And I've been trying to convince myself that it's not really my problem. I mean, when I'm human again, it won't affect me, right? But you were right. When you offered me the position, you said that the humans might listen to another human. If I could just talk to them, show them that they've got nothing to fear from us - er, you - maybe I can finally make up for…" You sighed and ceased your pacing, pressing your left hand into your face. "'Course, now that's gonna be harder to do, since _someone_ just threw a human into a brick wall. Christ!" You felt a flash of anger at Orion, and at yourself, since you were, at your core, one in the same.

 _They get it from you._ Sans thought, accusingly. _The explosive anger, I mean._

 _Yeah, well, they got the magic to do it from you, bone boy._ You retorted. God, you were arguing about Orion as if they were your child. _That_ had to stop; it was too weird. But, it reminded you…

"Oh _shit_ , the humans all saw us use magic. They weren't supposed to know, were they? Jeez…" You groaned and pressed both palms to your temples. This was a mess that you weren't prepared to deal with. Asgore, who had sat on the couch silently while you talked more than you ever had before in this body, finally stood up. You jumped when he put a hand on your back, rubbing soothing circles into your upper spine.

"Do not panic… what's done, is done. We will figure it out from here." Slowly, you lowered your arms. Your shoulders slumped, and you sighed.

"Okay, so… what do you want me to do?" Outside, you heard the storm begin to abate. Asgore hummed thoughtfully.

"I want you to go home. Wait for the humans to arrive, because I have no doubt that they will want to talk to you soon, if they are not already waiting for you there." You gulped and leaned over to peek out the window. You couldn't see your house too well from this angle, but you didn't think you saw anyone waiting on your porch. Although, they probably had a skeleton key to all of the camp houses… maybe they were already inside.

"Orion, focus." You jumped at the sound of that name. "I cannot force you to do so, but I think it would be wise if you apologized." You clenched your teeth. It wasn't fair that you and Sans had to take the blame for what Orion did, but, at the same time, it kind of was your fault. So you nodded. "Placate them by any means necessary. It is vital that we not lose what little trust we've gained with them over these past months."

"Then, I would strongly advise you to focus all of your energy into getting your proper bodies back." You raised your brows, and the King continued, his hand still resting on your back, "I must admit, I do not understand what is happening to your souls. But, if you say that neither you nor Sans is responsible for hurting that human, then I believe you. Whatever is happening, it is potentially dangerous. No human and monster have ever been together like this for as long as you have. I must admit, I did not consider it any of my business before now… however, I cannot let it continue if it is going to be affecting our diplomatic relations with the humans. It's time to end it, before further complications arise." His words sent a pang through your soul. He was right, but… the prospect of splitting from Sans was now more frightening than ever. What if there was something… _wrong_ with one or both of you, after spending so much time in the same body? And, even though you were mad at Orion right now, did you really want them to die?

But there was still a lot of time to think about it. Even though the DTEM was ready to go, you'd still hit a roadblock with your body. You'd have to really buckle down… no more days off, as long as Papyrus could keep his strength up.

While you were thinking, the King kept talking, "After today, I do not want you interacting with the humans if you can avoid it. Your duties as ambassador will start after you've been restored to your body. I hope you understand." You nodded numbly. No more field trips. You didn't suppose the humans would let you on any more of them, anyway. It was dumb luck that Asgore even wanted you as his ambassador anymore, after you straight-up attacked someone. God, Orion could've killed that guy…

"It might do you well to make peace with Undyne, too." Your head snapped up.

"Huh?" Undyne? You hadn't so much as spared her a second thought since the riot. Bigger fish, and all. Pun intended.

"Yes. As the ambassador, you'll be working closely with her, and I would prefer if the two of you were not at each other's throats." There was a hint of humor in his tone, but you could tell that he was being serious, too. "I know Undyne can be difficult to get along with, when she digs her heels in. She's stubborn and strong-willed, but if you make an effort, I'm sure you can at least have a working relationship." You shrugged Asgore's hand off of you. It wasn't that you didn't agree, you just had too many other worries at the moment.

"Yeah, okay. I'll talk to Undyne if the humans don't murder me first." Asgore scoffed.

"I highly doubt anyone will be turning anyone else to dust. But… do come back over here once you're done with the humans. I want to hear about it from you, first." You felt a warmth in your chest. Even after this, Asgore still trusted you. It was nothing short of a miracle.

"It might be a while. They're gonna tear me a new one, I'm sure." The King waved you off.

"It is no matter. I will wait. Now, go, I hear the helicopter approaching again." You whirled around to look out the window and, sure enough, there was the very same helicopter descending onto the road once more. You watched, peeking around the window frame in the hopes that no one would see you, as four humans climbed out. Charlie and Hernandez first, then Reives and Wolfe. You wondered what happened to Green. Reives' tie flapped violently in the vortex that the helicopter created as he bent down to say something to Wolfe. He pointed toward your house, which was right next to Asgore's. No one looked very happy, not even good-natured Hernandez.

"Uh, gotta go!" You said to the King nervously, bowing your head in a hasty show of gratefulness. With that, you took a backwards step into a shortcut. You hadn't really thought that out, though, since the portal you appeared out of was right next to your living room wall.

"Uff!" You grunted as you backed right into the wall, banging your head on it in the process. Despite the stressful situation, Sans laughed at you. You didn't even have time to recover before a firm knock on the door suffocated Sans' silent giggles. You were still rubbing the back of your head when you threw the door open.

"Orion, this is _not okay_." Before you could say anything, Reives scolded you, fixed you with a stern glare, and promptly marched into your house like he owned the place. You clenched your jaw to keep silent as Wolfe, Charlie, and Hernandez walked in after him. The officers at least hesitated at the door, and Hernandez even tried to stomp off the mud on his shoes. It wasn't very effective.

"Do you understand how precarious the situation is between the humans and monsters? We had to fight tooth and nail to get you people into that town, and now? There's no way they'll let you back, it's out of the question. You can't just _attack_ people who disagree with you… and with magic!" You were still and silent as Reives ranted at you. Your first instinct was to argue back; you had to keep reminding yourself that you deserved it. Or, at the very least, Orion did. There was a buzzing sound before Wolfe whipped her phone out of her pocket.

"The initial impression is that no one was able to get video of the event. People seem to think that the victim was simply thrown with physical force, and the monster just moved too fast for them to see it." Reives glanced over her shoulder at the screen. Wolfe's eyes flicked up to you, before quickly looking back down. "Officer Daujatas is still at the scene, sending us reports." She explained to you without looking up from her phone. Reives cut in,

"Good, good... tell her to keep spreading that story to anyone who seems confused." His eyes narrowed as he looked back to you. "You're very lucky. If anyone had gotten a video of that, it would've been catastrophic." Your magic twisted and rolled with your nerves. Charlie and Hernandez simply stood at the threshold, looking awkward, while Reives and Wolfe had commanded the living room. You stood between them, having still not said a word. Reives took a deep breath and pointed to the couch.

"Sit." It was pretty humiliating, being told to sit in your own damned house, but you did it anyway. Reives did a slight double-take, as though only just noticing his surroundings. His eyes lingered on the place where the coffee table should've been; you'd moved it from the living room into the spare bedroom on your first day in the house. It just got in the way. The couch, meanwhile, was pushed as far up against the wall as it could go. You considered putting that in the bedroom, too, as you usually just preferred to sit on the floor, but you'd kept it in place in case of guests. You hadn't really expected those guests to be FBI agents, though. And Reives didn't show any signs of wanting to sit down, anyway. He stood in front of you, his hands behind his back.

"I hope you understand that you have destroyed any chance of you ever leaving the camp grounds again." Even though you knew it wasn't true - you knew you'd leave here again, that you could leave any time you wanted through a shortcut - the words still sent a jolt of primal panic through your bones. You shivered. Reives continued, "I don't care if you can teleport… if I ever find out that you've stepped foot past those borders, I will find some way to punish you." He paused, and, for a moment, you thought you saw a cruel glint in his eye. "For example, I bet your brother would be more than a little upset if he were never allowed to leave the facility, either."

Anger practically blinded you, and Sans was right there with you this time. Papyrus did _nothing_ wrong, how _dare_ Reives threaten to punish him in your place! It took a very great effort not to yell in protest. Instead, you clenched and unclenched your fist, grinding your teeth together so hard that you were surprised they didn't crack under the pressure.

You shot a burning glance at Charlie. He'd stood up for you twice before, but it didn't seem like he was going to this time. Hernandez looked worried - the guy was so easy to read - but Charlie was stoic. It was… whatever. Not like you might've saved his life today, or anything. The two of you weren't friends, anyway. He was just some jackass who guarded the camp that you and all of your real friends were imprisoned in.

Reives looked smug. You'd always known he was a shitty person, it had just taken this long for him to come out of his shell.

"I'm sorry." You said your apology, not to Reives or Wolfe… or even Charlie. Hernandez was the only person in the room who you could stand to look at while you said it, so it was he who had your full attention. "I didn't mean to hurt anyone. I was on edge from all of those protesters crowding us, and… I know that's not a good excuse, but I really am sorry." Hernandez looked confused that you were addressing him, but gave you a small nod. Meanwhile, Sans was impressed by your sincerity. He waited for you to spew some meaningless promise, but... you didn't. You left the apology as it was - take it or leave it.

"Well, it's done now." Reives said, as though the apology had been meant for him. "I don't believe there's anything left for us to do, here." He and Wolfe walked over to the door, Wolfe still tapping away at her phone as she followed. Before he left, Reives turned to look at you once more.

"Goodbye, Orion." He said, simply, before venturing back out into the steady trickle of rain. Wolfe, Charlie, and Hernandez followed silently after him. When the door clicked shut, you were left as alone as you ever were, still sitting on the couch.

"Goodbye."

You did exactly as you were told; you and Sans buried yourselves in the task of reviving your body. The very next day, you went over to Alphys and Papyrus' house to wake them up early so you could get to work. This was all much to the annoyance of Undyne, who was also woken up by your pounding on the door. You largely ignored her, though; one problem at a time.

Toriel was surprised, yet elated when the three of you all showed up for breakfast at her house. She always invited everyone over, but no one ever woke up early enough to oblige her. Though, it was debatable whether Alphys was awake at all, since she almost face-planted into her scrambled eggs more than once.

"Not that I am not glad to have company," Toriel started once everyone was settled down with their food. Frisk, sporting some wild bed-head, slurped loudly on their orange juice and kicked their legs under their too-tall chair. "But is there any reason you are all chasing the morning sun?"

"Ask them." Alphys said blearily, jerking her thumb toward where you sat at the head of the table (you'd learned long ago that you couldn't sit next to anyone, or else you'd be constantly jabbing them with your wings and elbows).

"I just really think we need to finish this soul-separating stuff as soon as possible," You said, determinedly, "I am… we just need to get back into our bodies, and quickly. The longer we stay like this, the harder it's gonna be to… readjust. Once we're apart." You decided not to mention Asgore's orders, since talk of the King always put Toriel in a sour mood. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Frisk staring at you. Their gaze was piercing and unwavering; very unusual for a child. It sent a shiver down your spine.

"I AGREE!" Papyrus said suddenly. He'd been pretty quiet so far, and it can't have been because of the early hour. In fact, he was usually at his most chipper in the morning, a trait that used to plague Sans when he was trying to sleep in. "SIBLING! I mean, HUMAN! BROTHER! You have not been acting like yourself - I mean, YOURSELVES! I do not believe my brother or my human friend would ever have attacked someone if they were in their right minds!" Frisk stopped chewing and raised their brows. Clearly, they hadn't heard about this incident. Toriel seemed unsurprised, however; someone must've already told her. "But do not fear! I, The Great Papyrus, will get you back to normal so we can all pretend this never happened!"

You gave Papyrus a skeptical look, but refrained from pointing out that he hardly even knew you _or_ Sans. How did he know that neither of you would've attacked that man? Sans grudgingly admitted that he probably would've, had the guy been lunging for Papyrus instead of Charlie. And you were honestly not sure what you would've done, had you been in your human body. You sure wouldn't have been able to throw a grown-ass man across the street like that, though.

But, if Papyrus' blind faith in you was what was going to carry you all through this last stretch, then so be it.

"Thanks, Paps. You're a really cool brother… and friend." His eyes lit up at your praise.

"Well, of course I am!" He boasted, then happily shoved a forkful of eggs into his mouth. Alphys pondered this for a moment, then added,

"Um, w-well… we were testing that epinephrine solution… we could try that out today, i-if the tests come back good…"

With that, the lot of you headed down into the Underground, leaving the dirty dishes in the sink. You dropped Frisk off at Mettaton's hotel along the way; he was happy to take the kid for the day so he could dress them up and put them on one of his many TV shows. Frisk was oddly whiney about it, since, for some reason, they wanted to go with the rest of you down to the lab. They usually avoided the place after that one incident with Chara and the rabbit, so you didn't understand why they had a sudden urge to go back there. They didn't put up much of a fight once Toriel's stern, mom voice came out, though.

Upon entering the lab, you began your usual prep work. You uncovered the body up to its neck, leaving the sheet folded up over its face. You then clamped the heart rate monitor onto its finger and hooked it up to an IV. You liked to have the body on a fluid drip when it was being worked on, though you didn't honestly think it did much. This time, though, there was another reason for having the IV; you would be delivering the epinephrine solution through it.

Speaking of which, you left the body in the care of Toriel and Papyrus while you followed Alphys to the other side of the lab. While you were prepping the body, she'd gone to check on the NMR machine. She was looking over the results with a smile on her face when you walked in.

"Oh, Orion, I think it worked! Come look!" Her happiness was infectious. You grinned even before you took the graphs from her, then narrowed your eyes as you scrutinized them. Sans was no chemist, but he did have some experience with NMR from his later years of schooling. Both of you agreed that Alphys was right.

After sharing a nerdy, celebratory high-five, the two of you rejoined the rest of the group with your vial of epinephrine.

"T-this should help k-kickstart the body… h-humans make it naturally in small doses, but large doses can increase the h-heart rate…" Alphys tried to explain to Toriel, who seemed politely interested but confused. Meanwhile, you and Papyrus were bent over the body, Papyrus' eyes already glowing softly while the heart rate monitor beeped out a steady rhythm. You were checking everything over, making sure the machinery was all in order. You only had the one vial of epinephrine, after all, so you only had one shot. True, you could always make more, but that would take time, which you didn't have. You needed this to work _now_.

You checked the pallor of the body's skin by pressing a thumb into the flesh on its arm. It took a few minutes for the blood to get flowing but, once it did, the skin turned a slightly-less-sickly color. You double-checked the heart rate monitor, making sure it was clamped on properly, and then placed a hand on the body's chest to feel it breathing. That was another thing that started up whenever Papyrus was using his necromancy magic; you couldn't have blood flow without oxygen, after all. While you were gone with Alphys, Toriel must've attached the respirator to your face and covered it back up, because there were tubes coming out of the sheet that weren't there before. She knew that you didn't want to see the body's face, and always found a way to attach that particular device without you looking. You appreciated it.

Papyrus made a little sound of displeasure as you flitted around the body, checking everything over neurotically. He had no problem with Toriel messing with the body while he was working on it, but the minute you got in the way, he was all annoyed. Toriel always found it funny, at least.

"Okay, okay, I'm done." You stepped away from the corpse before Papyrus could get too huffy. Toriel took your place, her sleeves rolled up to her elbows.

"What would you like me to do this time, my child?" She asked as her hands went to hover over the body. Papyrus had shifted himself to stand by your body's head, both hands resting lightly over where the ears would be if they were not covered up. His orange eyes were half closed as he slipped into some kind of trance. You were used to it by now, but it had worried Sans relentlessly the first few times it had happened. The body's heart seemed to beat slower and more steady when Papyrus was relaxed like this, though.

"As much as you can." Toriel nodded solemnly before getting to work. No doubt, all of the body's organs had fallen into disrepair since the last time the three of you had done this. It was always like that… you, Papyrus, and Toriel would get the body functioning, then Pap would get tired and let the heart stop, and everything would fall apart again.

During this crucial time, there was not much for you to do. You usually just took notes on the body's vital signs. When the two of you weren't mad at each other for one reason or another, you and Sans talked and shared images in your mind. This time, though, Alphys was here, so you and Sans spent the time having whispered conversations with her about random things. Eventually, though, Alphys asked a question that you were sure she'd been itching to bring up the whole time,

"S-so, um… c-can I ask about… what happened yesterday?" She muttered while wringing her hands anxiously. You clicked your jaw. You should've really seen this coming.

"You can." You said, then added in a warmer tone, "What do you want to know? A lot happened." Once she was given permission to talk about it, Alphys dove right in.

"W-why did you do that to the human? And h-how? T-that was some r-really strong magic… and I've n-never seen you use magic before, aside from the… um… teleporting thing." You tilted your head curiously and took a moment to consult Sans.

 _Was it really that strong? I mean, you threw me around pretty good before, so I didn't think it was that big of a deal._ You felt Sans flinch, which often happened whenever you talked about your time in the Underground.

 _It is pretty unusual… especially when you don't pull the person's soul out first. It's easier to just throw the soul around, 'cause the body will follow it, anyway, and you don't have to deal with the extra weight. What I did to you… took a lot out of me._ You hummed thoughtfully.

"That guy was going for the gun on Charlie's belt… he could've hurt someone. And, uh… I don't know how. Just kind of happened." You whispered back to Alphys. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Toriel tilting her head toward you. She was clearly listening in as she worked. Alphys' mouth dropped open,

"Oh! I d-didn't know he had a gun… I've only really seen them in cartoons…" It struck you, then, how little the monsters knew about humans. Alphys probably knew more than anyone, and even she didn't seem to have recognized the gun sitting out in the open in the Northwest tower during her interview. Or the guns that had been holstered, but clearly displayed on each officer's belt. The monsters would really be easy targets for humans, if they decided to attack.

But, then again, the humans knew very little about monsters, too. The vast majority of them had no idea that magic even existed, let alone that monsters could wield it. They knew nothing of souls, or the barrier, or the Underground itself. Both sides had little understanding of each other. In fact, you and Sans (and Orion, if you wanted to count them) were probably the only ones who had a good grasp on both monsters and humans, given your... unique situation.

You felt that you had a better understanding now of why Asgore had agreed to distribute that stupid census just so that a few monsters could take a day trip to a human town. But, then again, look at how that had turned out. You and Sans might've done some real, long-term damage by screwing up the very first interaction between normal, civilian monsters and normal, civilian humans. You hadn't even really deserved to be on that trip, given that you weren't a human or a monster…

You huffed and shook your head. Whatever. It was in the past. Unfortunately, Alphys seemed to think you were annoyed with _her_ instead of the situation in general, and stammered a quiet apology. Before you could explain, Toriel interrupted,

"I believe this is as good as it is going to get." You rushed to her side, forgoing your conversation in favor of more important matters. Alphys shuffled up behind you, seeming unsure of where to stand so that she wouldn't be in the way. You quickly took the body's vital signs. Toriel had worked faster than ever, but everything _seemed_ normal. Outwardly, it appeared as if there was no reason your body shouldn't be alive. But, you knew from experience that the minute Papyrus took his hands off of it, everything would fall apart.

Speaking of the skeleton, he was in a world of his own. He hadn't moved since Toriel started working. Sans looked over at him with a hint of trepidation. Everyone in the room could feel the force of the magic Papyrus was wielding. Its strength would've been hair-raising, if you'd had any hair. The invisible force flowed directly from Papyrus' hands to the body, almost like he was giving it his own life-force. It made Sans uneasy.

Cautiously, you put a hand on Papyrus' shoulder. His glowing, orange eyes flared as he started, causing the body's heart to pound out a couple of arrhythmic beats.

"Hey, Pap… we're almost ready to go." Sans spoke in an easy, calm tone that he only ever used with his brother. Papyrus seemed bewildered.

"Oh, already? I could keep going for a little while, if it would be helpful." His bleary, half-asleep tone of voice suggested otherwise.

"Nah, bro, Tori's all done. You don't have to." With his hand still on Papyrus' armoured shoulder, Sans rubbed a couple of circles onto the metal subconsciously. There was no way Papyrus could've felt it through his armour, but his shoulders slumped anyway.

Impatiently, you took control. Sans didn't fight you. "I'm gonna need you to keep the heart going for a few seconds after I inject the epinephrine. It needs to have a couple of beats to circulate through the body, but we don't want to wait too long, because it wears off fast. Think you can do that?" Papyrus nodded and stood up straighter. The beeping of the heart rate monitor became a little quicker.

"Okay… good. Toriel, I'm going to have to ask you to step back. I might need to use the defibrillator, and I don't want anyone in the way. It could do quite a lot of damage if you get shocked accidentally." Toriel dipped her head and backed off, but not before fetching the defibrillator for you and setting it at your feet.

"Same goes to you, Pap… as soon as you let go, I want you to go stand by Toriel." He nodded again, looking far more awake now. He gave you a tentative, excited smile, which you couldn't help but to return. Maybe this could really work, this time…

"...Alphys?" You turned to face her and held out your hand expectantly. She handed over the vial of epinephrine that she'd been holding onto since you found out it was the real deal. You cradled it in your right hand while reaching over to grab a syringe with the left. It was a struggle, trying to extract the clear solution from the tiny vial when one of your hands was basically made of knives. Eventually, Alphys came to your aid and held the vial steady for you while you drew up the epinephrine. The two of you had done this enough times in the lab that you didn't even bother to exchange words about it.

"Ready, Pap?" You asked, your magic buzzing with excitement. If this worked, you could be back in your body in… hell, a matter of hours. What was stopping you? You could be back to normal later today, if you really wanted.

"I'm ready!" Papyrus chirped, his eyes bright.

"Okay, after I inject it, I'll count down from three. You can back away after I say 'one,' got it?"

"Got it!" He bounced on the balls of his feet impatiently.

"Alright…" Without further ado, you stuck the syringe into the needle port and pushed the plunger, emptying the contents into the IV bag.

"3…" Almost immediately, you heard the heart rate monitor speed up, and you didn't think it was Papyrus' doing.

"2…" You looked over at Pap and saw that the glow in his eyes was growing fainter as he prepared to let go.

"1." He backed away completely, scrambling to stand next to Toriel on the edge of the room. You held your breath as your poor heart stuttered a couple of times, then flatlined.

You were on the body immediately, pressing your palms into the center of its sternum as you began to give chest compressions. You narrowed your eyes as you concentrated on the rhythm, trying to ignore the persistent beep of the monitor. You'd tried this before; many times, in fact, and it had never worked. But maybe, this time…

It wasn't working. You would've tried mouth-to-mouth, but there was no use when the respirator was already doing the job for you. Plus, the idea of not only seeing your dead self's face, but basically kissing it, was too repulsive even in this dire situation. Instead, you brought out the defibrillator. You'd tried this before, too, but maybe…

As soon as the electrode pads were in place, you stood clear of the body and pressed the shock button. The force of it practically lifted the body off of the table, causing its back to arch. It slumped back down, and you were on it again, compressing its chest with more vigor than before.

"Come on…" You growled when, after two more minutes, there was still no heartbeat. You stood back and shocked it again. Then, two more minutes of chest compressions. Repeat.

It was after the fifth shock that you started getting angry.

"Come _on_! Just this one thing… _just give me this one thing_!" Just when Sans was about to step in and stop you, you hammered the shock button one last time and-

Heard a beeping sound.

You stood, frozen, your hand hovering over the button. You waited for a few seconds, just to make sure you weren't hallucinating. When the beeping didn't stop, you pressed two fingers to the body's throat.

Definitely a pulse.

"OH MY GOD, YOU DID IT!" Papyrus shrieked, breaking the tense silence that had fallen over the room. He turned and hugged the person nearest him, which happened to be Toriel. She chuckled and hugged him back. You laughed along with her, light-headed and dizzy as though you had just run a marathon. Alphys squealed, ran up to you on her short legs, and gave you another high-five.

Just as you were all celebrating, the monitor stuttered, lost its rhythm, and flatlined again.

"Aw, hell." You pushed Alphys behind you and began compressions again. Then a shock. More compressions, and another shock. And again and again. Until it was clear that whatever adrenaline had been running through the body's veins was long since exhausted.

You didn't get angry this time, though. Once you realized the pulse wasn't coming back anytime soon, you simply turned off the defibrillator and calmly removed the pads. Toriel came up behind you and placed a hand on your shoulder.

"It was a good start, my child. We can build on this and move forward from here…" You gave her a sad smile.

"Yeah, I know. I was just kind of looking forward to this all being over today…" You took a breath to steel yourself. "It's fine. You're right, it was a good first step." You turned to Alphys, "Hey, you think you can make more of that epinephrine? It really made a difference; maybe if we use a higher dose…?" Alphys, who'd looked disappointed at the bait-and-switch failure, perked up once she was given a job to do.

"O-oh, yeah! I saved all of our notes from last time, shouldn't be hard to make more."

"THAT'S RIGHT! WE WILL ALL TRY AGAIN TOMORROW! Though perhaps not so early next time, nyeh?" Papyrus said with a sheepish smile, rubbing his eye with one hand. He did look rather tired.

"Sure, bro." Sans agreed with an easy grin. He was glad the epinephrine had worked, too. He'd been more pessimistic than you before, but now that he saw evidence, he was hopeful.

While everyone began talking amongst themselves, you caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of your eye. You turned your head and saw that the red door, which you always closed before you started working on the body, was cracked open. A little, familiar face peeked out at you from behind it.

"Hey, Tori, you mind fixin' up the body for me? I just remembered, I've gotta go check on something." Toriel was a little confused by Sans' request, since you usually preferred to take care of the medical equipment yourself after its use, but agreed with a pleasant nod.

By the time Sans got to the door, the kid had backed away from it. Frisk stood a little ways down the hallway, their arms behind their back, kicking their feet against the wall absentmindedly. Sans shut the door behind him.

"What're you doin' down here, kiddo?" Sans crouched down to Frisk's level, eyeing the kid critically. They'd been acting off this morning, and it wasn't like them to come down to the lab when they knew you were working on the body. It was even less like them to run away from Mettaton, after Toriel had specifically told them to stay with him. Ever since the incident with the dead rabbit, Sans had been watching them, searching for any sign that Chara might be taking over. So far, nothing, but maybe this was a sign...

You had to admit that you hadn't put much thought into it, yourself. It seemed like a distant concern to you, and not something you knew how to fix, anyway.

 **Nothing…** They stopped fidgeting and brought their hands from behind their back to sign. **Found something. Wanted to show you.** Sans raised one brow.

"Alright, but first… you've been acting a little weird today. Is something wrong?" Frisk shook their head and made a frustrated little sound, grabbing Sans by the sleeve of his robe and tugging. "Okay, okay…" He stood up, knees creaking a little, and followed Frisk down the hallway. They'd be easier to approach if he just took care of whatever they wanted to show him, first.

Frisk led the two of you deep into the lab, past the TV room and into the cold, refrigerated storage room. There were several computer monitors along the wall here, but Frisk stopped suddenly in front of one of them. Sans almost trampled the kid.

"Jeez, little warning next time, half-pint… otherwise I might run ya right over." They ignored Sans in favor of the screen, pointing at it with a sense of urgency. He allowed his eyes to drift up to it and found, of all things, a message written in wingdings. The text was small, and it flickered in and out of existence, looking as though it might disappear at any moment. Sans took a quick step toward it, placing his hands on either side of the monitor as he read,

"ENTRY NUMBER NINE

ASGORE'S CHILDREN ARE GONE  
FOOLISH  
THEY COULD HAVE TAKEN SIX SOULS FROM THE SURFACE  
AND FREED US ALL  
WHY DID THEY WASTE SUCH A PERFECT OPPORTUNITY?

IF I MODELED MY EXPERIMENT TOO CLOSELY AFTER THOSE TWO  
WELL

THIS BODES ILL FOR THEM"

At some point while he read, Sans' soul melted into yours. You found yourselves sharing a mind as Orion, for the first time since you'd hurt that human. You weren't bothered by it, though. It wasn't what was happening right now, so it didn't matter.

"'Experiment'... what's he talking about?" You muttered aloud. But of course, no one was there to answer you. This was certainly the most confusing entry you'd stumbled on so far. You understood the first part; he was talking about Chara and Asriel. But the last sentence? This was Entry 9, and he'd started work on the Core back in Entry 7. So how did Chara and Asriel have anything to do with the experiment he was working on at the time?

Speaking of Chara, you glanced back down at Frisk. The kid had to struggle to look up at you, their neck craned up to see your face. The issue of the demon inside of the child took a backseat.

"How did you find this?" You asked curtly. Frisk shrugged. Not very helpful.

By the time you looked back at the screen, the message had flickered out of existence. You felt a flare of frustration; you liked to save all of the entries, in their original forms, in your phone. But it seemed that tradition was not going to be possible to uphold with this particular entry. Your talons twitched.

Frisk's hands moved, but you didn't quite catch what they signed. Your head whipped back to face them.

"What did you say?" The kid bit their lip before repeating themself.

 **You're acting weird, too.** You paused, then laughed. A low, rough laugh, not like the monster's quiet chortle or the human's loud, snorting harrumphs.

"Fair enough, kid." Frisk looked… a little frightened. Oh, shit... you hadn't meant to scare them. You forgot, sometimes, that they were just a child. "Hey, don't worry about it. How about I bring you home, yeah? Before your mom finds out you snuck down here." The kid seemed hesitant, so you added, "We can stop for Nice Cream along the way." That sealed the deal. Frisk perked up and took your hand when you held it out for them. With that, you led them through a shortcut, leaving the green monitor with the confusing entry behind you.


	21. Return to Sender

Unfortunately, you, Papyrus, and Toriel could not start working on the body again the very next day. The epinephrine took a day to make, and then another day to test, and there was not much to do in the interim. You thought about trying to talk to Undyne in the meantime, like Asgore suggested, but you just didn't know what to say. You had to come up with a plan to win her over, and every time you tried to brainstorm, you couldn't focus. You just couldn't stop thinking about Gaster…

It was Sans' fault, for the most part. His obsession with the elusive monster kept you from thinking about anything else. But it wasn't just him; you had to admit that you were intrigued, too. Entry 9 didn't really seem to fit with the others. The other entries you'd found so far had been laser-focused on Gaster's own research. He'd never mentioned current events before. Hell, he rarely ever mentioned other people at all; the only time was in Entry 7, when he talked about Asgore and his soon-to-be teammates. But even they were only mentioned in passing, and only because they were affecting his experiment. You and Sans had both assumed that Gaster made the journal specifically for record-keeping purposes, and not for personal reasons. By that logic, Chara and Asriel had to have something to do with Gaster's work, as suggested by the last sentence of the entry. But how? And for whom would it "bode ill"?

You hadn't realized you were walking until you found yourself outside the door of someone else's house. You blinked, took a step back, and looked around. You were standing a few houses down from your own… outside of Papyrus, Alphys, and Undyne's place. Maybe it was all of the thinking you'd been doing about Undyne, or maybe Papyrus just acted like a magnet to your lost, scattered mind. Unsure of what you were trying to accomplish, you knocked. You waited for a minute, but… there was no answer. You looked up to the sky and saw that the sun was still fairly low. It was pretty early, maybe they were all still sleeping?

You weren't sure if it was you or Sans who tried the door but, whoever it was, you were both surprised to find it unlocked. It creaked as you cracked it open, peering inside.

"Hello?" Your low voice rumbled through the empty living room. The lights were off, leaving only the natural morning light to illuminate the room through the windows. When no one answered you, you pushed the door open further.

"Anybody home?" The interior of the house looked quite different from how you remembered it. Although, the last time you'd been in here was right after they'd moved in, and that was… what? Two months ago? Close, at least. All of the boxes that had been cluttering the living room back then were gone. They'd rearranged the furniture so that the couch was against the opposite wall. Like Toriel, they, too, had a TV. It was much bigger than hers, though, and complete with surround sound. You wondered how they got such a nice setup… perhaps it was Alphys' doing, since she was pretty savvy with electronics.

You and Sans didn't really know why you were here or what you were doing, but you walked inside and shut the door quietly behind yourselves, anyway. You wandered further into the house, toward the dining area. As with all of the other houses, there was a long window which overlooked the backyard. Unlike your house, though, the backyard wasn't overgrown with weeds, but instead housed a small, but neat garden. You figured that was probably mostly Papyrus' doing; he'd taken a shine to gardening since meeting Asgore.

Your eyes were drawn to the right, where the door to the bigger bedroom was wide open. Feeling like an intruder, you peeked in. It was very clearly Alphys and Undyne's room, since there were anime posters plastered up on the walls and piano sheet music sprawled haphazardly on top of the dresser. Undyne's clothes were overflowing out of the drawers, and both sides of the bed were messy and unmade. You blushed when you caught sight of someone's bra lying on the ground. Best not to investigate any further.

Sans looked over his shoulder at the other bedroom door, which was only slightly cracked open. It looked dark inside. Too curious for your own good, you walked quietly over to it and pushed it open a little further. The sliver of light from the living room illuminated what was obviously Papyrus' bedroom. You recognized the pirate flag on the wall, and the action figures on top of his dresser; he must've moved them from his room in Snowdin to his room here. If that wasn't enough, it was pretty easy to tell whose room this was just by looking at the figure who was fast asleep in the bed.

Sans smiled softly as he listened to Papyrus' familiar, quiet snores. He still slept in the same position Sans remembered - sprawled out on his back, his limbs hanging off the sides of the bed. He used to have such trouble staying on the bed when he was a kid… Sans would often wake up in the middle of the night to Papyrus yelping because he'd rolled off the bed in his sleep and bonked his head. He'd always worried it was because his little bro hadn't had a bed to sleep in for most of his childhood, and so he had trouble adjusting. But maybe it was just something that Papyrus did, regardless. One of those strange, inexplicable constants that remained throughout every timeline.

Slowly, you backed away and closed the door until it was back to its original position. It was odd for Papyrus to sleep in this late; he'd probably be upset with himself when he woke up. You and Sans had a brief, internal debate about whether you should wake him up or just leave. There was no real reason for you to stay, but… you kind of wanted to just spend some time with your brother.

Sans' brother, not yours. It was a distinction that was getting harder and harder to make.

 _Does it bother you?_ You had to ask Sans specifically, since he was thinking about how he was going to wake Papyrus up and not paying attention to your own train of thought. Sans paused, and you felt mixed emotions from him.

 _Eh, not as much as it used to._ The two of you remembered back to the beginning, when Sans had gotten irrationally jealous whenever you so much as spoke to Papyrus. _Y'know, sometimes, I… I miss your parents. I know, it doesn't make sense… I've never even met them. But I just wish… I dunno._ He felt confused. You thought about it for a moment, then added,

 _Maybe you don't miss my parents, but just the idea of parents in general._ You didn't mention Gaster specifically, but the implication was there. This topic had come up before, but you'd never explicitly talked about it.

 _You're probably right, and that's how it started out, but… it feels like more than that, now._ There was a pause, and then, _Anyway, I just meant that, no, it doesn't really bother me if you think of Pap as your brother, sometimes. I get it._

You mulled that over for a moment. Would it bother _you_ if Sans started thinking of your family as his own? It would feel really weird, that much you knew. What would your parents think, if he accidentally slipped and called them "mom" and "dad"?

Well, you needn't worry about that. If you and Sans succeeded and managed to get Gaster back, then Sans would have his own dad and it would never have to be an issue.

 _Breakfast._ Sans interrupted, and you sent him a wordless question. _We'll start making breakfast, and I'd bet you anything Pap will wake up. The smell of food cooking always gets 'im going._ You hummed in agreement. It was a good idea, plus, you hadn't eaten yet. You often forgot about feeding yourself while in this body; typically, the only food you had all day was whatever Toriel made for dinner, or, sometimes, Papyrus' spaghetti for lunch. But, now that you were thinking about it, you were rather hungry.

The only problem was that you had no idea how to cook, which you realized the minute you walked into the kitchen. You opened the cupboards and the fridge, feeling lost. Eventually, you found a box of pancake mix, which you snatched up. You'd never made pancakes, yourself, but you knew Sans could make them, which was all that mattered.

 _Pancakes? Boring._ Sans complained, but you knew he was just teasing. He would've complained about anything you picked out.

 _You need to redeem yourself after those terrible shapes you made last time._ You brought up an image of his shitty, star-shaped-like-a-blob pancake from when you'd lived with him in the Underground. God, that was a long time ago…

 _Hey, that was modern art._ He defended himself as he searched for a pan and bowl.

 _More like modern… fart._ Your punning skills were definitely out of practice, but Sans grinned anyway.

 _Wow. Rude._

With that, the two of you began making pancakes. You mostly just watched as Sans mixed the ingredients (stirring a little too vigorously and getting pancake mix powder all over Papyrus' counter) and started up the oven. But you participated more when it came to the actual making of the pancakes. The two of you took turns trying to make shapes. It was a lot harder than it looked.

 _Oh my god… what's that supposed to be?_ Sans asked, finding great joy in your terrible art skills.

 _You know what it is… you can literally read my mind._ Obviously, it was a dog. Couldn't he see the little legs and tail?

 _The only dog that looks like is Endogeny._ You tilted your head to look at it at a different angle. Well, he wasn't wrong. You tried to flip the globular pancake, but it didn't fit too well on the spatula. Part of the "tail" broke off.

 _You try making a dog, if you think you're such a master at this!_ You challenged Sans as he laughed at your poor Endogeny look-alike.

 _I think you're_ barking _up the wrong tree._ Both of you giggled like children, your snorts mixing oddly with Sans' low chuckle.

"Sibling?" You and Sans whirled around, spatula still in hand. Papyrus was standing at the doorway, rubbing his eyes sleepily. He was sporting pirate-themed pajama pants and a ratty-looking shirt with a cartoon bone on the front. Unfortunately, you turned too quickly in the tiny kitchen, and ended up knocking over the still-open box of pancake mix with your wing. It hit the ground with a loud _THUD_ , spilling powder all over the floor.

"Oops." You clenched your jaw, looking from the mess you'd made, to Papyrus. "Uh, I'll clean that up." Pap blinked slowly a few times, probably wondering if he was hallucinating. It was pretty odd, now that you thought about it. You just showing up in his house randomly to make him pancakes. "We were, um, making you breakfast." You gestured helplessly to the pancakes. The first batch was nearly done, but you still had about half of the mix left to use. Papyrus peered into the pan (careful not to step in the mess on the floor), then gave you a funny look.

"What happened to them?" You raised your brows, and Sans asked,

"Whaddya mean?"

"I mean, why do they all look like exceptionally lumpy Moldsmalls?" You and Sans laughed again, leaning on the counter with one hand. You tried to clutch your own stomach in mirth, but obviously couldn't because you had no stomach to speak of. You didn't let it get you down.

"That one's a dog, I will have you know!" You pointed out your pancake on the far left. Papyrus cracked a smile.

"Oh my god, what happened to its head?!"

"That's its tail!"

The three of you continued on like this, making pancakes together until you were out of batter. As it turned out, Papyrus was better than either one of you at making shapes that were actually recognizable. It took him a couple tries, but eventually he managed to create a five-pointed star. You found it odd that he would pick that shape, since there was no way he could have any memory of Sans' abysmal attempt back in the Underground. But you supposed it wasn't an uncommon shape, so you put it from your mind.

"Hey, Papyrus," Sans started up, "That star is _out of this world._ " He snickered, and Papyrus groaned,

"WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS?" Meanwhile, you complained,

 _You used that one before… that's cheating!_ Sans shrugged.

 _What? Paps doesn't remember._ To prove his point, he continued out loud, "I guess the next time I try to make a star, I should really _planet_ better, huh?" Papyrus let out a long-suffering sigh, even though he really hadn't even heard the tip of the iceberg yet as far as Sans' pun arsenal went.

 _Hey! That's my line!_ You huffed, scandalized that Sans would steal your pun from you. It was kind of nice, though… being able to joke about the resets casually like this. The humor wasn't even self-deprecating or dark. It was almost a miracle.

Once every last drop of batter was used, you relocated into the dining room. Papyrus procured butter and syrup from the depths of the kitchen cabinets, and you proceeded to dig into your misshapen creations.

"So, Pap… got any plans for today?" Sans asked, and that was all it took to get Papyrus going. He started rambling about how he needed to get caught up on his Royal Guard duties, and you and Sans just listened. It was still a bit of a sore spot for Sans, that Papyrus had managed to fulfill his lifelong dream in the one timeline where his brother wasn't a part of his life. But still, he felt a fond tingling in his bones when Papyrus talked about it. He was so enthusiastic and happy with his job; it was hard to be bitter about it.

You were just starting to wonder if the three of you would be able to finish all of the pancakes you'd made when suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

"Oh! A guest approaches!" Pap leapt up from his seat, his chair making an abrasive sound as it scraped across the floor. From your seat at the table, you had to crane your neck to see who was at the door when Papyrus threw it open. You were thinking it was probably Frisk, or Toriel, or Asgore… or some combination of the three. But no.

It was Charlie.

"Nyeh? Human?" Papyrus was as perplexed as you. Charlie was dressed in his full uniform, as though he'd come directly from work. Maybe he was still on duty… did something happen? You stood up and crossed the distance from the dining room to the front door in a few, long strides.

"What do you want?" You asked cooly as you hovered behind Papyrus. The skeleton looked back at you, confused as to why you were acting so hostile. You weren't about to forget how Charlie had sat back and watched as Reives threatened your brother's freedom yesterday. He had some nerve, showing up at Papyrus' house…

"Relax, Orion. I saw you coming over here from my tower." He pointed over his shoulder with his thumb, where you knew, without having to look, that the Northwest tower loomed in the background. When you said nothing, Charlie let his arm drop and took a deep breath.

"I need to talk to you about something. Alone."


	22. The Kids Aren't Alright

((A/N: A guest asked me about the reader's gender in the last chapter, so I thought I'd clear it up: the reader character is nonbinary and uses they/them/theirs pronouns. The same goes for Orion, Chara, and Frisk.

I started out TUYS thinking that I'd keep the reader's gender ambiguous, but I've since decided that I should just own up to the fact that they're nonbinary. There have been a few times when their gender has been implied (for example, in TUYS when they said that wearing a dress was "not their style," or just a couple chapters ago when they were annoyed by Charlie calling them a "man"), but I've never come out and explicitly said it. It certainly won't be a major part of the story, but it might be subtly hinted at once in a blue moon.

It seems like most people have assumed that the reader is female (probably because most of my readership is female), which isn't the case, but I won't be mad or anything if you prefer to keep calling them she/her/hers. They, themselves, would probably be mad, but they're not a real person so they don't get a say XD Hope that clears things up!))

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You gritted your teeth, then looked down at Papyrus. For once, you'd been having a good time… what the hell did Charlie have to tell you that he couldn't say in front of Pap?

"It's okay, sibling, I can clean up the kitchen if you have to go!" Papyrus said with a forced smile. Aw shit, you'd forgotten about the mess you made. You gave Pap an affectionate, grateful rub on the head, which he ducked out of with a huff.

"You're the best, bro."

"OF COURSE I AM! You tell me this practically everyday!" You paused, then chuckled. Between you, Sans, and Orion… you supposed you did.

"'Cause it's true." You said, fondly. Charlie watched this exchange with a tight smile. He seemed conflicted about something. Reluctantly, you turned to address him.

"Alright, follow me." You carefully stepped around Papyrus, then pushed past Charlie to get out the door. You listened to his footsteps as he stumbled a little, then hurried after you.

"Um, where're we going?" Charlie piped up as he half-walked, half-ran to keep up with you. You were walking across the street, toward the forest on the other side of the road.

"My house." You said simply, glancing over your shoulder to look at the confused expression on Charlie's face. Honestly, just walking over to your place the normal way would've probably taken the same amount of time, but you just wanted to throw the officer off guard as much as possible. Maybe that was petty of you, but Sans was enjoying it, too, so you felt a little more justified.

When you took Charlie through the shortcut, he didn't seem to notice anything was off at first. It took a split second before you heard his audible gasp as he suddenly found himself in your living room. Your mouth twitched as you took some childish pleasure in his shock. You well remembered your first time being led through a shortcut and how disorienting it was.

Pretending not to notice his surprise, you gestured to the couch. You watched out of the corner of your eye to see if he actually would sit, and, after a moment of stunned hesitation, he did. Damn, so this was going to be a long conversation. You'd kind of been hoping you wouldn't have to talk to, or even see, Charlie or any of the other humans until you were in your separate bodies. But it seemed that just wasn't going to happen. With a sigh that you didn't even bother trying to hide, you sat down on the floor against the wall opposite of the couch. Even so, you and Charlie were at eye-level. You fanned out your wings and stretched out one leg to get more comfortable. Charlie sat stiffly in his own seat, watching your wings as they spread to the ends of the room.

"Well?" You asked, breaking the silence. Charlie seemed to snap out of it and cleared his throat.

"Um, well… okay, so, do you want the good news first, or the bad news?" You scoffed. What kind of question was that?

"G-… b-… uh…" You and Sans tried to speak at the same time, with disastrous results. Huh, strange. The two of you were almost always on the same page nowadays, you'd forgotten you could even have different opinions.

 _What the hell? You always ask for the good news first. It's like, objectively better._ You complained, to which Sans shrugged.

 _I always go for the bad news, because then you get it out of the way quicker. But I guess it doesn't really matter, so… do whatever you want._ As you had your internal debate, you realized that Charlie was staring at you with a bemused expression. It was your turn to clear your throat, even though you had no need to, being a skeleton and all.

"Uh, good news, I meant." Your wings twitched and you clasped your hands in front of you. Charlie shook his head a little and continued on.

"Well, in that case…" The corners of Charlie's mouth turned up into a smirk as he leaned forward to dig in his pants pocket. You furrowed your brows as he pulled out his phone, tapping away at it like he was looking for something specific. He stood up, took a step toward you, then hesitated as he looked up from his phone. "I'm gonna… um, show you something on my phone, if that's okay." You scoffed,

"I know what a cellphone is. Go for it." Charlie's ears reddened as he held out the phone to you, screen forward. It was a fancy smartphone, with a much bigger screen and sleeker appearance than the phones that the monsters had. You didn't recognize the model - some company must've come out with a new phone in the five months you'd been cut off from human society. You didn't have time to ponder that, though, since Charlie hit the "play" button on a video as soon as he had your attention.

"You might already know about the hotly contested visit that the monsters of Mt. Ebott took to a small, neighboring town, but do you know the whole story?" You straightened up and leaned forward, snatching the phone from Charlie's hands without asking for permission. It was a recording of a news report, and on a national news station, no less. You watched it hungrily. "One local restaurant owner says there's more than meets the eye." The scene changed from looking at the anchorwoman, to showing a familiar figure in an even more familiar restaurant.

"Oh, they were a funny looking crowd, for sure," Luini said to the camera, his eyes wide and earnest, "But real polite! One of 'em… big, scary lookin' skeleton, left me three gold coins! And they're real gold, too… 24 karats! I had them checked out the very same day!" Now, the same news anchor stood outside of the restaurant, on the opposite end of the street.

"The lead FBI investigator assigned to the ongoing maintenance of Mt. Ebott's monsters, Agent Victor Reives, declined to comment about any prior knowledge of this supposed 'monster currency.' This extravagant tip has led some people to believe in the monsters' kindness. But, only moments after leaving Luini's restaurant, the very same monster who left the tip attacked another human just down the street."

Footage from a crappy, cellphone camera showed up on screen. You lurched forward, dread filling your bones, but you needn't have panicked. It couldn't have been footage of the attack… it was too far up the street, and there were too many protesters still crowding around your small group. The news anchor continued to narrate over the footage. "Unfortunately, our news reporters were not allowed in the town at the time, but this cellphone footage from a peaceful protester shows the group of monsters moments before the attack took place." Your nonexistent stomach rolled when you caught sight of yourself. You looked damn freaky, with your wings half-spread and every muscle in your body taut with tension. You knew Papyrus must've been walking next to you, but your massive body was entirely blocking him from view. The top of Mettaton's square, robotic shape was barely visible, and the other two were too short to be seen from within the crowd of humans.

The clip was short, but telling. You hadn't truly realized before just how much you stood out, even from the other monsters. The news anchor continued, "Witnesses of the attack seem to have mixed accounts of the event." They finally cut away from the footage of the monsters to show an older man being interviewed. It took you a moment to place his face, but eventually you recognized him as one of the people Orion had bowled over.

"T-that big freak just went crazy! It picked up that young man like he was nothin', and tossed him clear across the street! Blew me right over… damn near threw out my back." Next was a middle aged woman, too generic-looking for you to recognize.

"If you ask me, that man had it coming. He was getting right up in that police officer's face, hootin' and hollerin' at him. Then, he and the officer got in a scuffle, and the monster… well, it moved too fast for me to make out, but it seemed like it was just tryin' to help out." Back to the news anchor standing outside of Luini's.

"Whether or not the monsters are kind-hearted or hostile still remains a mystery. Three months since they emerged from the mountain, and we still know next to nothing about them. We'll simply have to wait, and hope that time will tell. I'm Carly Hartwick, reporting from South Ebott, Wyoming."

With that, the video ended. You blinked, then handed Charlie his phone back. That was… a lot to process.

"... And that was the good news?" Sans asked, his brows raised. Charlie tapped a few things on the phone's screen before sliding it into his pocket, sitting back down on the couch in the same motion.

"Yeah, it is good, Orion. Really good." He fidgeted, running a hand over his head as he considered his words. "Not everyone… I mean, we don't all hate monsters, y'know. I know you saw a lot of protesters in town, but we're not all like that." You hummed noncommittally. You already knew that… you'd gleaned as much from the trip, and just what you knew about human nature, in general. There'd be differing opinions, there always was. But it would all depend on how large and how vocal the group of protesters were.

"Man…" Charlie laughed a little under his breath, shaking his head. "I had no idea you left those gold coins at Luini's. That was smart, I gotta admit. Way to stick it to Reives… he's having a coronary over this!" You tilted your head, confused.

"I… uh… didn't really think that much about it. Thought I was just being nice." He laughed even harder at that, and you had to ask, "Why's it bad for Reives? I mean, I know he's been ripping us off, but..."

"Aw, man… that gold stuff was a secret, didn't you know? It was all very hush hush that he was exploiting you guys… only a few people even knew. Hell, _I_ only know because I'm the one who sits in on all the meetings. Now, though… everyone's gonna recognize those gold coins when Reives sends them off to be melted down. He'll have to start paying you guys fairly… god forbid." Charlie rolled his eyes. Clearly, he disliked Reives as much as you. Didn't mean you weren't still mad at him, though.

Charlie picked up on your cold silence, and all mirth quickly fled from him. He leaned forward and bit his lip, staring at a spot near the tip of your wing instead of actually looking at you.

"Look, I… I'm sorry about how I acted that day. A lot happened, and I just… didn't know how to react, I guess." He scratched his head, clearly very uncomfortable with apologies. "But I've thought about it, and…" Charlie took a deep breath, and finally looked you in the eyes. "I want you to know that I've got your back. I used to think pretty badly of you all, I'm not gonna lie. But I've watched you guys from that tower for three months now. I've gotten to know you, and some of the other monsters… and you've been nothing but honest with me from the get-go. That's more than I can say about most of the humans I've met. So, uh… if you ever need anything… or you're in trouble… you know where I am."

Your mind felt tumultuous. Sans was satisfied with Charlie's apology, but you? It wasn't that you didn't believe him; there was no doubt that Charlie was being sincere. But the practical realist in you was whispering to just cut all ties with him now, before you got in too deep. After all, Orion wasn't going to be around for much longer. If all went well, they'd be gone in a day or two. What was the point in making friends with Charlie if the Orion he knew was just going to disappear right after? It would be easier on him if you rejected him now, rather than leaving him to wonder why his monster friend left without warning.

But, looking at Charlie now… you couldn't really bring yourself to do that. He'd probably know that you were being disingenuous, anyway.

"Thanks, Charlie. I appreciate that." The words felt too stiff, but Charlie seemed too relieved that his apology was accepted to really notice your word choice. He flopped back on the couch, grinning lazily.

"You don't know how glad I am that you said that… and oh, hey," He shot back up just as fast, "The same goes for the other officers. Well, I guess I don't really know about Samuelsson, but Hernandez was all worried 'cause he thought you hated us. And Green wanted to bring you cookies… _cookies_ , he's such a pansy…" Charlie laughed, but you were a little disappointed. You would've totally accepted apology cookies, even if you didn't really know Green that well. "Daujatas, too. She actually wanted to come with me… but we really couldn't spare another guard. She's up in the Southwest tower. I'm not even supposed to be here, technically, so…"

"Um, Charlie?" You interrupted his rambling, as amusing as it was to listen to.

"Yeah?"

"Wasn't there some other news you wanted to share? The bad news?" Charlie's shoulders stiffened.

"Oh, yeah, you're right…" He sighed, and you were suddenly regretting asking for the good news first. Sans was right, it does kind of kill the mood. "Well, it's not _that_ bad, it was bound to happen eventually. It's just that, some people must've seen the bird flying in and out of camp and… well… word spreads quick, so now everyone knows where this place is." You clenched your teeth, and Charlie hurried to add, "Like I said, bound to happen eventually. We weren't really being very discreet, and there're some conspiracy-theorist types who've been looking for the camp for months. They can't really _do_ anything; no one's allowed past the border, not even humans trying to get in. But there's a small group of 'em out there right now… protesters. They're a bit more… ah… motivated than the ones we saw at South Ebott. As you might imagine, since they were dedicated enough to hike all the way out here just to yell at some trees. You guys can't even hear them from here…" He shook his head, "It's pointless, but… also kind of sad." You were too busy imagining the worst, thinking about what might happen if the protesters breached the border, that you barely caught his last statement.

"Why's it sad?" You asked with a sneer. Those people hiked all the way out here, hoping to intimidate the monsters into going back underground. Who cared if no one could hear them? They didn't deserve to be heard.

"Well, I mean… almost all of the protesters who were crazy enough to walk out this far are friends and family of the missing people. Now, I'm not saying you guys had anything to do with that, but there _have_ been a lot of disappearances around this mountain. People seem to think the monsters have something to do with it, somehow." Charlie shrugged, and wouldn't look at you. "A lot of them are kids, too. It's just sad… their parents are ready to point the finger at anyone, y'know? Can't say I blame 'em."

His use of the word 'parents' suddenly triggered something in your mind. Friends and family of missing people…

Your eyes went wide as you shot up from the ground, startling Charlie with your sudden speed.

"Woah, where's the fire?" You didn't answer, but disappeared through a shortcut, not bothering to take Charlie with you. You reappeared at the base of the Northwest tower, but… dammit, Charlie hadn't told you exactly _where_ along the border the protesters were gathered. You thought you heard faint voices coming from the west, though, so you starting running in that direction, dodging through the trees as best you could in your giant body.

 _This is a bad idea._ You barely even heard Sans in your own mind, as frantic as you were to find the group of humans. _Even if they're here, they're not gonna recognize us- er, you._

You didn't care, you didn't care… just _seeing_ them would be enough for now. You pushed onward, struggling through some brambles. You considered just running on the border, where there was a straight line cleared of trees, a few yards wide… but Sans was at least able to keep you from doing _that_. The border was no man's land; even if you were buddies with the guards (which you weren't, really), you'd still get in trouble for getting too close.

The voices grew louder as you approached, but you couldn't make out what they were saying. They didn't seem to be chanting anything in particular… how long had they been out here? Did they run out of steam? Have they realized that no one was listening to them? Your heart ached…

Suddenly, you saw someone on the other side of the border. You stopped abruptly. Multiple people, in fact, mingling about in the trees. Some were sitting, some were leaning against tree trunks, and others were talking to each other. One group was trying to attach a big poster to a tree near the border, but having a hard time of it. Clearly, no one had brought a hammer or nails. It was impossible to get a count on the number of people, since they kept flitting between the trees, coming in and out of view. Unlike the crowd in South Ebott, this group seemed loose, disorganized, and far less threatening. Most of them looked tired; whether it was from the hike up here, or from yelling at the trees all morning, or a combination of both. Clearly, a forest in the middle of a desolate mountain was not the ideal place to hold a protest.

You inched closer to read what was on the sign. It was large, and had a lot of small pictures with captions underneath. On the top were big, bold letters that read, "GIVE US BACK OUR FAMILIES." You squinted, and took another step forward. Your magic fizzled and popped when you realized; the pictures were all portraits of the missing people, and the captions underneath were their names. And there were _so many pictures_ , far more than had actually fallen into the Underground. A vast majority of them were school photos… children who had all gone missing on or near the mountain. And there, fourth from the left on the third row, was _you_.

You weren't sure if she could sense the presence of your turbulent magic, or if you had just inched one step too close, but one of the humans trying to hang up the sign caught sight of you. She was a middle-aged woman… if you had to guess, probably a mother of one of the missing kids. She did a double take, gasped, and grabbed the arm of the man next to her. Her husband? He turned around too, and soon, everyone knew that there was a monster at the border.

"What d'you want, huh?!" The man asked with a sneer. You didn't know how to answer. The protesters gathered around in a tight group, their energy renewed now that they finally had an audience. They whispered amongst themselves.

"Is that the freak from the news?"

"The one that attacked that guy?"

"God, it's so big…" You hunched over and folded your wings tighter to your body. Blood dripped from the tip of one and onto the poison ivy at your feet.

"Nothin'." You answered the man in a low mumble. Your eyes darted around as you scanned the crowd, but you didn't find who you were looking for. Maybe this was a bad idea. Sans didn't feel any gratification from being right, though.

"If you don't have any of our kids, then you can just… just leave!" Oh, the irony. The woman who'd seen you first spoke up, though she continued to clutch her husband's arm. You could practically smell her fear. You looked back at your picture on the sign, then at all of the other faces next to yours. Far too many…

"I just wanted to say that… I'm sorry." You had to say something. You just _had_ to. Even if your parents weren't here, these people deserved to know that someone was hearing them. "I'm sorry your family and friends are missing. But the monsters, they… _we_ had nothing to do with it." Your eyes came to focus on the one couple who'd spoken to you, and you asked, with as much kindness in your voice as you could manage, "Which one's yours?" There was a moment of tense silence before the man pointed to a spot on the sign, his hand shaking.

"H-his name's Kevin…" It was a little boy, around Frisk's age. You didn't know if he was one of the kids who'd actually fallen into the Underground or not. But, more than likely, he was not. "Please, have you seen him?" The man lost all of his bravado the moment he started talking about his son. For a moment, you almost wished the monsters _had_ kidnapped all of these kids. At least then you'd have an answer for the people here.

"I'm sorry, I haven't. I haven't seen any of those people." You steadfastly avoided looking at the sign. Of all the lies you ever told, that had to have been one of the hardest to choke out.

"You haven't really looked!" A different woman's voice cried out from the back of the crowd. Oh, god… she sounded so familiar...

The top of her wild, curly hair was the first thing you saw. You watched, filled with both dread and hope, as she pushed her way to the front of the crowd. Seeing her face, beat red and _alive_ , was like a shock to your system. Your magic flared, sending an invisible spark through the air. She looked at you with _such intensity,_ you half expected to get yelled at for forgetting to do the dishes. No, more serious than that… it was more like the time you'd crashed your dad's car.

Speaking of your dad, he followed after her. Taller, but less demanding of attention than your mom. You didn't even see him until you heard his low voice, muttering something to your mom that you couldn't quite make out. She marched up to the sign and took it from the hands of the two women who'd been holding it in place. You flinched as she walked straight across the border, totally unheading of the invisible barrier that separated the humans and the monsters.

"Here, take it." She stopped just short of the trees that you were half-hidden in, holding the sign out at arm's length. She was _so close_ , you could smell her perfume. You trembled, your hands pulled up to your chest. You wanted to hug her, to bury your face in her shoulder, to confess everything… but you couldn't. Sans wouldn't let you, for one thing. And, deep down, you knew he was right. As usual.

 _I told you this was a bad idea._ He finally said it, his inner voice wavering with emotion. He was just as distressed as you. You felt a telltale tingling in the back of your mind, but you'd be damned if you were going to let Orion form. This was _your_ mom, and _your_ moment with her. You couldn't do anything to Orion, but you pushed Sans back roughly, gagging him in a way that you hadn't even tried to do in months. Surprisingly, it worked, and Orion couldn't take control.

"Well? Are you deaf?" The sign made a warbling sound as your mom shook it, trying to get your attention. She seemed to lose her nerve the longer she stood in front of you. Her eyes were wide with suppressed fear as she stared up at your asymmetric face, her left hand clenched into a fist while her right shook, causing the sign to tremble. She'd never, ever, looked at you like this before. So full of hate and terror...

Carefully, you stepped forward, reaching out to take the sign. You wanted, desperately, to brush your fingers against hers, but refrained. You knew she wouldn't appreciate the contact.

"You need to bring it back to your people…" You cringed at the wording. Mom took a small step toward you, and pointed sharply to your picture on the sign. "That's my child, right there. If anyone's seen them, tell us. Got it?" There was a murmur of assent from the crowd behind her. You looked up to see Dad, hovering on the edge of the border, his brows knit together, looking worried. You looked back down and studied your own picture. It was taken about a year ago, and looked almost nothing like the dead body you had lying on your examination table in the lab. Your hair was longer, now, since you hadn't thought to cut it while in the Underground. You had a fresh scar on your face, too, from Sans bashing you into the cave wall (it was one of the reasons you didn't want to lift the sheet and see your own face; you didn't want to know how badly it had healed, how disfigured you were now). Not to mention how your waxy, half-decayed skin clung to your bones, all of the fat and muscle having withered away in lieu of your death.

You glanced back at your mom's desperate, frightened expression. She really would not want to know what became of you. It was better, this way…

"I will." You said, your voice deep and gravelly and _wrong_. You'd never hated it more than you did right then.

Before either of you could say anything else, the sound of running footsteps interrupted you. You peeked around a tree trunk to see the familiar face of Daujatas, booking it over to you from her Southern tower.

"Ma'am! You can't cross the line, what're you-" She stopped abruptly when she caught sight of you. Her breath came in quick pants and her hair stuck stubbornly to her sweaty face. "Oh, it's you. I should've known…" You gave her a sheepish look.

"She was just giving me a poster, it's fine. No harm done." You held up the sign for Daujatas to see, while your mom quickly scampered away, back to the other side of the border. Your parents quietly slipped back into the crowd, disappearing from view. You felt a pang in your chest at the loss.

 _You'll see 'em again soon, and in your real body. They climbed up all this way just to look for you, they'll be so happy to see you…_ Having loosened your hold on him enough that he could speak again, Sans tried to reassure you, but there was something half-hearted about the attempt. You weren't quite convinced. Not that you didn't think your parents loved you; you knew they did. But just, the way she'd looked at you, like she hated every bone in your body… the way she'd talked to you… you'd never imagined that your own mother could feel that much wrath. Was she going to be like that to all of the monsters? To Sans? Would your parents try to separate the two of you? No, they couldn't… they couldn't…

Your breath hitched. You kept your gaze fixed carefully on the sign, rolling it up neatly for easy transport. You barely even noticed when Daujatas came up to stand in front of you.

"Go home, Orion. I don't want to see you back here… it'll just cause trouble. Okay?" She said, in a surprisingly kind tone of voice, quiet enough that only you could hear her. You nodded mutely, then turned around and started walking back to camp.

As you walked, the shaky, stuttering breaths did not relent. You even felt tears spring to your eyes, which you wiped away furiously. Why was this so damn hard? This wasn't what you'd wanted…

"What did you expect? We look like the kind of thing that might've killed their kid. A monster. It'll be better soon… for you, anyway." Sans spoke aloud. He was surprisingly short with you, which did not help the spontaneous crying problem. He was so bitter… and you _knew_ why, you just couldn't deal with it right then. You had no room to be sad for Sans as well as yourself.

You were half-tempted to retort with a mean comment about his own lack of parentage, but that would've been far too cruel. This wasn't the time to be fighting. Unfortunately, Sans knew that you'd thought about it, which was just as bad as saying it out loud in his book.

"Thanks for gagging me, by the way. Not like I wanted to talk to them, too, or anything." The sarcasm was so unlike him, it scared you a little. You just hadn't wanted Orion coming by and messing things up again…

"W-why do you care? They're not your parents." You managed to choke out between sobs. You were barely aware that you were still stumbling through the trees, talking to yourself like an insane asylum escapee.

"I know! But I just-" He growled, using his right hand to strike out viciously at a fallen tree trunk that was leaning in your way. It was sliced clean in half. "We've talked about this already. You know how I feel, I'm not gonna explain it." You didn't really, though. Did _he_ even know how he felt? Yeah, sometimes you thought of Papyrus as your brother, but did Sans…? About your parents? It felt weird to you. At least you knew Paps… Sans had never even met your mom and dad before today. How could he possibly think of them like… like family?

"We'll find Gaster." You stopped walking and leaned against a tree, panting and sweating as if you'd run a marathon. You wiped at your eyes again, catching the tears before they fell. "We'll find him, and then you'll have your d-dad, and I'll have my parents, and it'll be _f-fine!_ "

The two of you gasped, shuddered, and trembled. The rattle of your bones echoed eerily between the mostly-bare trees. The world started to spin, so you closed your eyes and let slip a quiet moan. You didn't remember getting physically ill the last time you argued with Sans. There were just too many emotions rolling around in your head, crashing together like thunder. It _hurt_. You would've happily welcomed Orion's stabilizing presence now, but they didn't show up.

Eventually, mercifully, things calmed down. You barely even remembered why you were upset, or who was mad at who.

"Shit, I'm sorry." Sans said, your forehead hitting the tree you were leaning on as you breathed deeply.

"We're losing ourselves." You pointed out, and Sans didn't argue. It was an objective fact.

"Can we…" He started, then stopped, and finished his question silently. _Can we go to Toriel's house? I just… think she can help._ You would've chosen to go to Asgore, yourself, but you did what Sans wanted this time. You slipped back and let him take full control of the body, unlike the half-and-half bullshit that you'd been doing recently.

Sans straightened himself up, examined the shortcuts nearby, and took one that led right to the Queen's living room.


	23. The Empty Child

When you showed up in Toriel's living room, still panting and trembling slightly, there was nobody there. You supposed you should've expected that; it was the middle of the day, after all. Sans' disappointment rolled off of him in waves, but, before you could suggest looking for her in the lab, you heard something to your left.

It was… humming? Sans turned, his breath hitching as he struggled to muffle his pants. It sounded like it was coming from Frisk's room. The door to their bedroom was cracked open, though all that you could see from this angle was that the light was on. Whoever was in there was humming tunelessly. It wasn't any particular song, rather, they were just making noise for the sake of it. That didn't seem like the silent, sign-language-using Frisk that you knew.

Sans inched toward the door, his magic pounding in his bones. Something was very wrong, he could feel it in the air. As he approached, Frisk came into view. The child was sitting on the floor in the middle of their room, their back to him. There were papers littered all over the floor, and it looked like Frisk was drawing something. Silently, Sans pushed the door open wider to get a better look.

Golden flowers. All over the scattered papers. It was all the kid had drawn... probably all morning, judging by the sheer number of doodles that covered the floor. Well, that wasn't entirely true; there were a few other, unique drawings, too. Near Frisk's crossed legs was a crude depiction of a goat monster. Sans thought it was Toriel, but you quickly corrected him. It had a green and yellow sweater on... definitely Asriel. Another drawing toward the corner of the room looked like it might've been a skeleton at first, with two, bright blue eyes. But it had been scribbled out with black crayon, as though the kid had been unhappy with it.

Sans took a half-step into the room, unwilling to get any closer than that. He gripped the doorframe tightly with his taloned hand.

"Kid?" Frisk stopped humming and coloring. They dropped their crayon, waited a tense second, then turned their head around slowly. They had this awful, toothy grin on their face. When they spoke, it was in a pleasant, lilting tone,

"Where'd you put my knife, Sans?"

Immediately, Sans cringed and jolted back, his left eye flaring blue. He threw his hand out in front of him, and you felt his invisible magic gathering in between you and the kid like a shield. You knew you had about a half-second before that magic formed into a blaster, and the kid was reduced to ash.

"Wait!" You cried, interrupting Sans with a forceful, mental shove. The body lost its balance and fell on its ass, eye still glowing. The magic wavered and dissociated, still hovering around you but unable to form into anything solid.

"What're you doing?!" Sans growled menacingly, fighting you fiercely for control of the body. You fought back just as hard.

"Stopping you from killing Frisk!"

"That is _not_ Frisk."

"But they're _in there_! And there's no resetting anymore… if you kill them now, they'll really be dead!" Sans' resolve wavered for the briefest moment, and you used that to your advantage. You snatched the controls from his grasp, and the burning in your eye was snuffed out.

A wordless cry of anger and fear filled your skull, and you clutched your head in agony. Through stinging tears, you could just make out Frisk - no, _Chara_ \- watching you with silent amusement.

"Stop, stop…" You panted, bones rattling, "Just... _think_ about what you're doing, for fuck's sake! Do you really want Frisk to die?"

 _If it's the price we have to pay to get rid of that abomination… I've done it before, and I'll do it again!_ In your mind's eye, you saw a brief flash of what had happened nearly four months ago. Sans, fighting Chara… killing them mercilessly, along with Frisk. Of course, the last reset had erased all of that, but it still left a sick feeling in your bones.

"You… you don't mean that." You hissed, your teeth clenched with the effort of keeping Sans at bay.

 _Yes, I do. Look at them!_ Against your will, your eyes raised to look at Chara. They were still just watching… smiling, making no move to attack lost control. _It's over! Let me end it, before they kill everyone, just like every other time! Hell, they might've already gotten to Toriel-_

"You don't know that!" You yelled, then said in a calmer, authoritative tone, "We can't just go killing people... _kids_... before we know the whole story. Besides, that… stuff… that happened in the Underground… that was at least partially my fault."

 _Yeah, it was! Which is why I shouldn't listen to you!_ He surged up, fighting you with renewed vigor. _I'm not letting you and that demon near each other again!_ He pushed hard against your defenses, but to no avail. Mentally, you were just stronger than him, and that was that. Realizing that his efforts were getting him nowhere, Sans stopped.

 _Let. Me. Go._ His tone was dark and threatening, but you were sure you were in the right this time. You weren't going to let him kill Frisk. You just… couldn't.

 _If you don't, I'll leave._ _I won't come back._ You flinched. Would he really do that? He sounded serious… you knew he meant it. The last time he'd gone and holed himself up in the back of your mind…

No. You couldn't bend like that. You'd suffer through it, if it meant preventing a double murder.

With that, Sans was gone. He left you with one last mental kick, as if slamming the door behind him. It left you with a stinging headache in the front of your skull. You winced and pressed your hand to it. The pain quickly faded to a dull throb.

Before you even really knew what had happened, you were suddenly alone. Just you and Chara, both sitting on the floor, surrounded by childish drawings of golden flowers. This was the kid who'd pushed you into the Underground and started this whole mess to begin with. You looked up at them apprehensively. They'd turned Frisk's body around to face you, but continued to sit cross-legged. They leaned forward, their hands pressed against the ground in front of them, and studied you with a cheshire grin.

"What a delight… I'm glad you're here, partner." You shivered. Maybe you'd made a mistake… but you had so many questions for Chara. And they didn't seem threatening, sitting on the floor in a child's body. They tilted their head, their grin faltering just a little. "Has the comedian left us? That's good… I like you better, anyway."

"Where's Frisk?" You asked, slowly raising your head from your hand. Chara bit their lip and raised their brows. It was strange, seeing their face so expressive.

"Still here. Watching." They tapped their temple with a finger. "They let me out, you know. It is a pity, but I can't take control of this body without their permission anymore. You made sure of that." Chara frowned and pierced you with a look of disgust. Then, just as quick, their expression turned around. The grin returned, and they shrugged goodnaturedly. "But, no hard feelings! Admittedly, I still do not understand how you did it. Snatching your own soul right out of my hands… care to explain?"

"Hell no." You growled, eyes narrowed. If Chara didn't know about the game, you sure weren't going to tell them. Far too risky, with your computer sitting, vulnerable, only a few houses down the road…

They shrugged again. "As I expected. You wouldn't tip your hand so easily… we are quite alike, you and I."

You would have protested, but could you, really? Instead, you changed the subject.

"And Toriel?" Chara scoffed at you and rolled their eyes.

"Do you really think Frisk would allow me to harm anyone? No, she went grocery shopping. Should be back in… oh… about an hour." You sat up a little straighter, your legs stretched out in front of you.

"Why are you here, then? Why is Frisk letting you do this?" You asked, almost pleadingly. You hoped Frisk would take back control; you were about ready to chew the kid out off for taking such a massive risk.

"I suppose they have become… _sympathetic_ toward me." Chara looked amused, as though the idea was absurd to them. "They have taken to letting me out occasionally, when no one's around. I think they have not taken back control because they believe I can talk you out of this dangerous path you're on. They put too much faith in me." They barked a short laugh. So much noise coming out of Frisk's mouth… it just sounded very odd.

"What do you mean? What path?" You asked, leaning forward in curiosity. Chara seemed pleased that you'd asked.

"Frisk and I believe it would be exceptionally… _unwise_ , for you and Sans to continue trying to separate your souls." They looked like they were trying hard to be diplomatic about this.

"Why do you care?" You crossed your arms in front of your chest defensively. They had no business sticking their nose in this…

"Well, _I_ don't, particularly. But I thought _you_ might want to hear from the only person who has ever been split up after having their soul absorbed by a monster, _and_ the only person who has been sharing a body with someone else for longer than you." You blinked, your eye sockets widening. You… hadn't thought about that. Not only had Chara once shared a body with Asriel, but they were currently going halfsies with Frisk, too. The child gave you a smug grin.

"Alright… I'll bite. Why shouldn't we split?" You couldn't help but to sound a little patronizing. The idea of _not_ splitting Orion up after all the work you'd already gone through was crazy to you. You were so close to getting back into your body that you felt almost obligated to at least try it.

"Where do I start? Of course, there's the obvious reason… it won't work." Chara said, lifting one finger as if they were starting a count. "Then, of course, even if it somehow does work, there's a good chance you'll be unhappy being apart once you're separated." They ticked off another finger. "Additionally, everyone in this world, save your human friends and family, only knows you and Sans as Orion. Need I remind you that the last reset destroyed any evidence of your existence in the Underground? Reestablishing those connections will not be as easy as you think." They gave you a knowing look as a third finger went up. "And lastly… what, pray tell, do you plan on doing _after_ you are separated? What will people think when a human, of all things, struts out of that mountain? It will be quite the scandal, I imagine." They looked at their own hand. "There's four, and _that's_ just off the top of my head." They rolled their eyes again. You thought you were beginning to see more of Chara's real personality, the longer the two of you talked.

"Okay, so…" You took a moment to remember all of the arguments they'd made. You already knew you weren't going to let some dead kid talk you out of reaching this goal you'd been working toward for _months_ , but you decided to humor them, if only to satisfy Frisk so that they'd come back. "Why, exactly, do you think it won't work?"

Chara scoffed, "You think you can just do some science, sprinkle in a little magic, and, voila, your souls will be back to normal?" They let out a shrill, high-pitched laugh… very out of place, coming from Frisk's body. "No, souls are incredibly intricate… more complicated than you fools seem to believe. Have you not wondered how Frisk and I are able to share a body, when we are both human? Or how my dear brother continued to exist, when he had neither body nor soul?"

You did wonder about that, actually. It was pretty low on the list of unexplained mysteries you were concerned about at the moment, but you were willing to listen if only to keep Chara talking with you amicably. They continued without any input from you, "Our souls were linked, even in death. I have a part of his, and he, a part of mine. When we died, neither of us were able to continue onto whatever afterlife may have awaited us. Our souls shattered... messily. A fraction of mine found its way to my dead body, and Frisk was able to pick it up because it wasn't truly, completely human." They frowned, thoughtful. "I cannot honestly say what happened to Asriel… but, after that scientist pumped him full of Determination, I think it is safe to say that his soul, or whatever's left of it, is mutilated beyond recognition.

"I would imagine that the same fate awaits for you, should you try to split yourselves in two. And Asriel and I were only together for a day… you and Sans have been in this state for months. You have no idea what you're dealing with." They finished with a smug grin. You were… a little less sure of yourself now. You uncrossed your arms and furrowed your brows.

"I… have to try. Even if it might not work, even if it'll be hard to readjust… people will miss me if I don't come back. My parents…"

"Ha! Parents?" Chara interrupted you, with an almost gleeful expression. "If I know anything about human parents, it's that they _will_ disappoint you. Spare yourself the trouble by not giving them the chance." You frowned. Your parents weren't like that… you felt like showing them that poster with your picture on it, as if that would prove it. But you only just realized that you didn't have it anymore. You must've dropped it in the forest at some point during your freakout.

"My parents love me… maybe you don't understand that, but it's true." Chara waved you off dismissively.

"Well, believe what you want, but it doesn't change the fact that separating yourselves is a terrible idea, and you shouldn't base your decision off of other people." You decided to drop it, though you still disagreed with the kid. You didn't want to argue too heatedly with them, in case you somehow set them off. It was a distant concern to you, admittedly; you didn't share that fear of Chara that Sans seemed to have. Even so, you changed the subject, coming up with an indisputable argument in your favor.

"We can't stay like this forever. Sans and I… we don't even get along! I'm sure Sans, at least, would rather risk being trapped in eternal limbo than be stuck with me any longer." You snorted, and looked away. You and Sans were just… too different. There was too much bad blood between you. You'd thought, maybe, for a while, that you could be… you didn't even know. Friends? Fat chance of that, when the two of you continued to alternate between fighting and not talking to each other.

"Well, you better _start_ getting along, because you're going to be stuck with each other long after you're in separate bodies. _If_ you even make it that far." Chara mumbled the last sentence, which you ignored.

You didn't have to ask what Chara meant by that. You'd already promised Sans that you wouldn't leave once you were in your human body, and, even though that promise had been made when the two of you were on better terms, you still intended to keep it. You couldn't even think about leaving without feeling nauseous…

...How fucked up was that? No matter how much the two of you fought, no matter if you grew to _hate_ each other, you'd never be able to leave. You knew this, inexorably. You could only hope that the feeling of dependence would fade over time, but that felt like a distant dream. When had it come to this point? When had it gone from just temporarily sharing control of a body, to being so wrapped up in each other's orbits that you couldn't break free?

Chara was quiet as you thought about this. They studied their fingers, picking at their nails absentmindedly. For some reason, this irked you.

"Stop that." You snapped, crossly. Chara slowly looked up at you, grinning.

"Why?" It took you a moment to pinpoint why it bothered you.

"That's Frisk's body… you shouldn't change it like that." Granted, shortening Frisk's fingernails was low on the list of Chara's offenses, but you just wanted to steer the conversation away from yourself.

"Oh, that's rich, coming from you!" Chara laughed shrilly. "Look at what you've done to Sans' body… and now you've driven him from his own mind? What was that one saying… the one about the speck of sawdust in your neighbor's eye?"

"'Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own?'" You recited automatically. Chara snapped their fingers.

"That's the one!" The child yawned and stretched their arms up before continuing, "Well, I can see you will not be persuaded. I think I have done my best, though, wouldn't you agree?" You shrugged and cast your eyes downward, and they took that as agreement. "See, Frisk? Now, if you wouldkindly stop pestering me about this, I would appreciate it." There was a brief moment of silence, before Chara barked a short laugh. It was odd, to see two people communicating in the same way you and Sans did.

Well, in the same way you and Sans _used_ to, since he was still radio silent in your mind and showing no signs of returning.

"In that case, I believe this conversation is over. Mom will be back any moment, and Frisk doesn't wish for us to meet." Chara shrugged, looking vaguely uncomfortable at the prospect of meeting Toriel. "Farewell, partner." They gave you a mocking little wave before, suddenly, their expression shifted.

You recognized Frisk immediately. The kid's shoulders slumped, and they uncrossed their legs so as to hug their knees to their chest. They shook their head so that their hair fell over their eyes, and it reminded you of how you preferred to keep your hood up while Sans always liked it down. You ignored the similarities and got to your feet, towering above Frisk as you loomed in the doorway of their room.

"Don't _ever_ do that again." You growled lowly, your anger from before returning in full force now that the threat was gone. The kid nearly got themselves _killed_ , and caused you and Sans to fight in the process. If they had complete control over Chara, then it was their responsibility to keep the murderous child caged. They should not be letting them out for some damn _fresh air_.

Frisk looked abashed, and you weren't so angry that you didn't recognize when you needed to take a step back and cool off. Without another word, you turned and walked through a shortcut.

You didn't pay much attention to where the shortcut took you, beyond making sure that it was within the camp's borders. You were somewhere in the forest to the east; not far from the road, but far enough that you couldn't see the backs of any houses. You leaned your back against a tree and slid down until you were sitting under it, crossing your arms over your knees and burying your head in them.

 _Sans?_ You called, pleadingly, in your own mind. No answer; he was well beyond your reach. He'd done this often enough that it wasn't too unusual, but this was the first time he'd done it out of malice. He'd said he wasn't coming back… did he really mean that? You keened out loud, then quickly cut yourself off.

No… you couldn't feel sorry for yourself. You had to pull yourself together. This was what it was going to be like after you separated, after all. No one else in your mind, just you… alone… always.

You hated to even think it, but Chara might've had a point. A few points, actually. Was it really the best idea to split up? You still thought so, but you were less sure of it now. You wished Sans was here, so you could get his opinion. But everything was coming together so quickly; you would likely be able to switch back into your real body by tomorrow…

Maybe you should wait. You felt very uncomfortable doing something so momentous without Sans around to at least give his consent. Yes, he'd been all for splitting up the last you knew, but, if he'd heard what Chara had to say, would he have changed his mind? You just didn't know.

You raised your head enough to rest your chin on your bony arms. Yes, you'd just have to wait until Sans came back… or, at the very least, until Orion formed again. Perhaps they'd be able to lend you some insight into what Sans would think of this situation.

With that decided, you stood up. You stretched your wings and cracked your neck. You'd have to tell everyone that the project was postponed, at least for now. You dreaded disappointing them… especially Asgore. He wouldn't approve of you having doubts, you were sure. But, there was just no getting around it… he'd just have to deal.

Without further ado, you brought the shortcuts into view again, taking more care to examine them this time before disappearing through one.


	24. Fino Alla Fine

Your friends' reactions to you postponing the splitting of your souls was… mixed, to say the least.

On one extreme, Toriel was happy that you were taking more time to think this through. It was odd, since she was one of the people who'd helped you the most since you told her about your desire to split, but she was also the one who was encouraging you to stay together. It got to the point where she was almost annoying about it, if you were being honest.

"Oh, and Orion… if you are going to remain in this body, I think it is high time you expanded your wardrobe. I would be happy to make another robe for you… King Asgore truly has too many, he only ever wears the same two, over and over. I am sure he wouldn't mind giving you another… oh, perhaps the dark blue one-"

"No offense, Tori," You set down your fork with a clatter. Dinners at Toriel's house had once been a comfort to you, but now they only caused you anxiety. "But I'd rather not make any plans either way." Her eyes widened a fraction, before a blush stained her furry cheeks.

"Oh, I'm sorry, dear. But, do let me know if you change your mind." As their mother spoke, Frisk looked up at you from over their food with a blank expression. Your magic twisted uncomfortably, and you looked away.

That was another reason you didn't like coming over to Toriel's house anymore. You hadn't spoken to Frisk since the incident with Chara. You _couldn't_ speak to them, without Sans there to translate their sign language. What could you have possibly said, anyway? Sans was the one who knew how to deal with the kid, not you...

On the other end of the spectrum, Asgore was disappointed in you, predictably. You'd broken the news to him before anyone else, and he'd tried to talk you out of it. He told you not to throw away all of the work you'd already put in. He gently pointed out that all of your friends had worked very hard to help you… even when you'd only been an odd-looking stranger to them. It was nothing that you hadn't already thought, yourself. You'd assured him that you weren't making any permanent decisions yet; you just wanted more time to think it through. He grudgingly accepted that, and let you be.

Asgore didn't know the real reason behind your decision, and neither did anyone else. You'd considered telling them, but how did you explain that things were so bad between you and Sans that he wasn't even acknowledging you? He wasn't even aware of what was going on around him… he had no idea that you'd postponed anything because of his absence. No one really understood your relationship with Sans (you didn't even understand it, truthfully), and, even if they did, there was nothing they could do to help.

Alphys had tried to stay neutral when you'd told her. She'd said that you should take all the time you needed, but, deep down, you could tell she was disappointed. This had been her big chance to show Asgore that she could still do her job as Royal Scientist after the disaster that was the amalgamations, and now you were considering throwing all of her work away. It was selfish, but… you felt justified in putting yourself and Sans first, when it came to this. It was your body, your life, and your potential future. So, you felt bad, but not bad enough to change anything.

Papyrus… you'd dreaded telling him more than anyone. He'd been your rock through this whole ordeal, and you didn't think he even knew it. You hated letting him down, so you'd saved him for last. He'd been heartbreakingly confused; just yesterday, you'd been rushing everyone to get your body back in working order, and now, you were saying you needed to stop?

"But… we can still keep working, right? You can think _while_ we heal your body! That way, when you're done thinking, everything will be ready!"

You didn't have the heart to tell him otherwise, so you'd agreed. You told Alphys to keep working on the epinephrine, and it didn't take long for her to finish producing more of it. After three, miserable days of trying and failing to get your heart pumping on its own again, you, Papyrus, Toriel, and Alphys finally did it.

Now, hours after you'd shocked your body back to life, you were kneeling beside it. You were hunched over, with your head resting on your forearms and your face right next to the heart rate monitor on the body's hand. You could hear it beeping steadily, long after the second shot of adrenaline Alphys gave it had worn out. It was really on its own now, and it didn't show any signs of dying again.

Carefully, without changing your relaxed position, you reached out with the fingers of your left hand to brush the skin on the body's upper arm. You didn't know what possessed you; it wasn't like you hadn't touched the body before. But, now that it was technically alive… it just seemed different, for some reason. Even after just a few hours, it was already warm. Maybe you should've brought a thermometer down here. Maybe you could try to find one tonight and, if the body was still alive tomorrow...

"Orion?" You started, then looked up to see Toriel standing in the doorway. You lifted your head and straightened your back, your bony wings scraping abrasively on the tiled floor as you changed position.

"Yes?" She gave you a motherly smile. Once it became clear that the body wasn't going to flatline anytime soon, she, Papyrus, and Alphys had left one by one to take care of their own business. You hadn't paid attention to the time, and had no idea how long you'd been alone down here.

"Why don't you come up, dear? It is almost time for dinner." Ah, so it was evening, then. You took another look at the body, its face still covered by the sheet. You supposed you would have to leave it eventually. It had plenty of fluids in its IV bag to last the night; assuming it didn't die of its own accord, it should be fine. You quite liked the quiet, dark atmosphere of the lab, though. The cold, sterile room was silent save for the beep of the heart rate monitor, and the occasional drip of the leaky faucet on the other side of the room. But, you had other things to do… and, honestly, you feared leaving your mind free to wander for too long.

"Thanks, Toriel… but I think I'll skip dinner today. Got something else I need to do." You stood up from the floor, your knees creaking in protest. Toriel looked surprised; you never missed out on dinner at her house.

"Oh! Alright, then, if you're sure…" You walked around the examination table, glancing at the body one last time. You tore your eyes away to look back at the Queen.

"Would you like me to walk you home? I know a shortcut." Her look of surprise deepened to an almost concerned expression. This, too, was uncharacteristic of you; you almost never took other people through your shortcuts, and certainly never when Sans wasn't… But, you needed to practice, so that you didn't mess it up later tonight. Though she seemed a little worried, Toriel was too curious to pass it up.

"Sure, I think I would like to try." You grinned.

"Excellent." You'd taken Toriel through a shortcut once before; a long time ago, back when you'd first taken her to the barn. But she seemed more nervous this time, now that she was expecting it. She clasped her hands in front of her and followed close behind you as you walked out the door.

"Shall I… hold onto your arm?" She asked, peeking around your wing to shoot you an anxious look. You continued to walk, the shortcuts slowly appearing around you. One of them near the elevator opened, turning into a sphere at your command.

"If it'll make you feel better. Makes no difference to me." Without a moment of hesitation, her hand shot out and curled around your humerus. You chuckled; Toriel was always so composed, it was fun to bring her out of her comfort zone. As if to explain herself, she said defensively,

"I have never encountered a monster with this kind of… magical ability. Might I ask how you came about it?"

"I've just always had it, so far as I can remember." The answer came to you automatically, even though it wasn't your memories that you were drawing from. You knew a lot of things about Sans that he'd never told you, just by being Orion. Even when the two of you weren't together like that, those memories still lingered. Whatever Orion knew, you knew. "Took me a while to learn how to use it, but the shortcuts have always been there." As you talked, you and Toriel passed through the shortcut. Your voice warbled a bit as you walked through, but otherwise, the transition was as seamless as always.

"So, these 'shortcuts,' you don't create them… yourself…" The Queen trailed off as she realized that the two of you were no longer in the lab. You were at the mouth of the cave, right where the barrier used to stand. The only sign that the Underground and the surface world had ever been a part of different dimensions of space was that no shortcuts existed which connected the two. It was a bit of a hassle for you, since it meant that you had to either walk or take another, connecting shortcut.

"Nope." You answered shortly, not because the question annoyed you, but just because you didn't have any way to elaborate. You had no idea how the shortcuts were created in the first place, and neither did Sans. Oddly, some locations seemed to have significantly more shortcuts than others, such as the barn and Sans' basement back in Snowdin. But Sans had never been able to suss out the reasoning behind that, and you hadn't any hope of figuring it out, either.

"We could take another shortcut down to the houses, if you want." You offered, but Toriel shook her head with a smile. Her large, furry hand left your arm, and you kind of missed the contact.

"No, thank you, I think I prefer to walk. It is not far." Her voice sounded a little weak. You wondered if the shortcuts were disconcerting to her. You hadn't found them particularly off-putting when you were in your own body and Sans had taken you through them. But, then again, you'd been expecting it, having played the game beforehand and knowing all about Sans' ability.

The two of you walked together in companionable silence, breaking it only briefly to comment on the nice weather. The sky was clear, with only a few, wispy clouds drifting along lazily. The sun was low in the sky, and would begin to set soon. Its light was beating down on the west-facing houses, making them almost glow. When you reached your house, your eyes were drawn to the front door. As soon as you'd had the time, you'd gone back to the forest to retrieve the missing persons poster. With nowhere else to put it, you'd nailed it to your own door. You knew all of those people were either dead or had never been in the Underground in the first place, so the monsters had no chance of finding them... but you just couldn't disobey your mother. So you'd hung it up, even if there was no point.

Toriel gave you an odd look as you passed by your own house, stopping instead at Papyrus' before you gave her a parting smile and wave. She continued on down the street and quietly bid you goodnight.

Your magic fluttered nervously as you knocked on their door. You'd been thinking about this all day while watching over your body. This was long overdue, honestly, plus it kept you from thinking about… less pleasant things. You heard Papyrus yell "I'LL GET IT!" from inside, and it brought a smile to your face. He threw open the door and beamed at you when he saw who it was.

"SIBLING! I SEE QUEEN TORIEL HAS RETRIEVED YOU FROM THE LAB! THIS IS EXCELLENT NEWS!" He seemed glad that you were no longer down there, though you wondered why. Had you been worrying people by staying there so long? If so, it was unintentional. You'd just wanted to make sure the body was okay to be left alone for the night.

"Actually, Pap, I was wondering if Undyne was home?" Papyrus did a double take. You could understand the shock; you and Undyne hadn't so much as spoken a word to each other since the monsters had risen up and protested on the street. You didn't honestly know what the monsters' recent feelings about all of that were, since you didn't go Underground except to work in the lab. Plus, Asgore had taken a step back from informing you of all of the worldly news. You assumed you would get an earful when (and if) you were back in your human body and taking up the mantle of ambassador. But, though you understood that he was a busy guy and probably just didn't have time to talk to you every day, you still missed going to his house and chatting over tea.

But, because of the lack of updates from the King, you didn't really know where Undyne stood, either. It was high time you talked, though, and you might as well do it while you were alone. You didn't think Sans would approve of the scheme you'd concocted to get on good terms with Undyne, but he wasn't around to share his opinion...

"Oh… yes! UNDYNE!" Papyrus turned his head and shouted into the house. You heard banging, crashing, and cursing from the kitchen, before a familiar face poked her head around the corner.

"WHAT?! Oh." She snarled when she caught sight of your hulking form in the doorway. She took a couple steps forward and crossed her arms, a spatula still in hand. "What do you want, punk?" You knew that Undyne called everyone "punk," but, when she said it to you, somehow it felt more menacing. Papyrus stood aside, looking excited. His eyes were practically lighting up; he seemed glad that his friends were talking.

"WHOOPSIE! I JUST REMEMBERED THAT I-"

"No, Pap!" You flung a hand out to stop him before he could do something like leap through another window. He seemed scandalized that you were preventing his suave exit. "Actually, I was hoping Undyne and I could go talk… somewhere else?" You glanced nervously at the fish woman, who narrowed her eyes. She looked at Papyrus, then sighed and uncrossed her arms.

"Sure, why not? This oughta be good…" She muttered the last part under her breath before stalking forward. As she approached, she poked Papyrus in the chest and grinned. " _You're_ in charge of the spaghetti, now… don't let me down!" Pap saluted her, then said, slightly affronted,

"THE GREAT PAPYRUS WOULD NEVER DO SUCH A THING!" Undyne's grin widened before she punched him in the shoulder. That must happen a lot, because Pap only winced a little.

"That's the spirit!" With that, Undyne handed him the spatula she was holding (Why was she cooking spaghetti with a spatula?) and walked out the door to join you. As soon as the door closed behind her, she scowled, "Alright, what do you want?"

The open hostility was discouraging, but you tried not to let it faze you. "I really do want to take you somewhere. Mind humoring me for a while?" Undyne looked suspicious.

"Is this gonna be one of your freaky teleporting things?" You just grinned, winked, and started walking. You got three paces ahead of her before you heard her groan and jog to catch up to you. As you walked a short ways up the road, you glanced over to your right. The sun was just sinking over the horizon… perfect timing. Now that Undyne had agreed to follow you, you were less nervous. You _knew_ she'd like this, and you certainly hoped she'd take it as a peace offering.

"Isn't this your house?" She asked, suspicious, as you started up the front steps. You opened the door wide for her, but she wasn't coming in.

"What… scared?" You teased, and it had the desired effect. Undyne snorted and leapt up the steps all in one stride, pushing past you into the house. You rushed after her, putting a hand on her shoulder to stop her from going any further. "Wait, wait… I need to check something first." She rolled her eyes, but stopped and waited for you.

You must've looked completely insane, circling around a point in the middle of the living room and studying it with scrutiny. Undyne wasn't able to see the spherical shortcut, but you were inspecting it with a critical eye. Approaching the perfectly round wormhole from different angles gave you a 365 degree view of the surroundings and, from what you could see, there were no humans on the other side. There never were, anytime you happened to get curious enough to look at it, but better to be safe than sorry.

"Alright, the coast is clear… literally." You grinned at yourself. Sans would've appreciated that pun, though the thought of him soured it a little for you. Trying your best to ignore the stabbing pain of his absence, you waved Undyne forward. "Follow me, you'll like this."

She looked incredibly skeptical, but Undyne reluctantly followed behind you anyway. The walk through the shortcut was more abrupt than usual, considering the drastic change in environment. If you'd been human, the change in elevation would've made your ears pop like crazy. The sound of huge waves crashing onto a rocky shore filled the silence of an otherwise barren landscape. The salty smell of the ocean was quite a stark contrast to the crisp, mountain air you were used to breathing. It was still pretty dark, but the sun was just beginning to peek out over the water, causing the jagged rock formations around you to cast long, imposing shadows.

You heard Unydne grunt in surprise behind you. You turned to see her wide-eyed expression as she took it all in. The shortcut was still open behind her, showing a spherical impression of your living room. You dismissed it, allowing the wormhole to close and fade silently into the background.

"Ta-da." You said with a grin. You did another quick check to make sure there was nobody around, but there wasn't a soul in sight. This beach was far too rocky and dangerous for humans to enjoy, plus it was nearly winter and thus too cold for people to be going for a swim. You were pretty proud of your own idea.

"Why's the sun going the wrong way?" Undyne asked as soon as she picked her jaw up off the floor. She walked past you absentmindedly, seemingly drawn to the view of the sun rising over the water. You turned to follow her movements.

"We're in Italy… that's nearly halfway around the world. The Earth is round, so while the sun's setting back home, it's rising here." There was a moment of silence as Undyne took it all in. You watched the back of her head, following her ponytail as it blew around in the breeze. After a long minute, Undyne laughed and turned to you.

"You're one crazy motherfucker! Oh my god, we are _so_ far past the border! We're gonna be in so much trouble!" She seemed gleeful at the prospect. You grinned, a little nervously.

"No one's gotta know, right? I just figured… it's a shame you guys can't see more of the surface. Mount Ebott's beautiful, and all, but there's so much more to see… and I thought you, in particular, would like this place. N-not just because you're a fish, or anything… I mean..." Oh god, was that racist? You glanced from Undyne to the ocean, clenching your jaw. Thankfully, she just laughed again, reached over, and punched you in the shoulder. You winced and rubbed the muscle she'd hit.

"Wow, this is…" She turned to look at the shore again, drawn to the vast expanse of water. As though suddenly remembering who she was with, she cleared her throat and crossed her arms. "It's alright, I guess." You smiled, easily seeing through her cool facade.

"Wanna get closer?" Undyne shrugged, which you took as agreement, and the two of you picked your way over the rocks to get closer to the shore. You sat down right on the edge of a small cliff, which dropped into the water below. You looked to the right and left and saw that, on your left, the cliff smoothed out a bit to form more of a gentle incline, allowing water to creep up farther onto the land. On your right, the rocks veered sharply inward, which meant that you were on a bit of a peninsula, surrounded by water on all sides.

You kicked your legs, which hung down over the edge of the cliff. You gave Undyne a few minutes to watch the sunrise, and it warmed you to see a small, content smile form on her face when she thought you weren't looking. You turned away and watched the sun creep over the water's edge, yourself. You tried to keep your mind off of him, but you couldn't help wondering what Sans would think of this. He'd probably be mad at you, to tell the truth. You were endangering Papyrus' freedom just to get on Undyne's good side… yeah, he'd hate that. But you were very confident in yourself, and knew that you wouldn't get caught. Besides, Undyne wasn't demanding that you take her back, or anything. If she wasn't afraid of getting in trouble, then you weren't, either.

And, honestly, this trip was for you as much as it was for Undyne. You needed to get away from camp; that place was suffocating you. Most of the time, you were too busy to think much about it, but it was always there… that nagging feeling that you were trapped. Imprisoned. You hated it. You needed to prove it to yourself that you could leave anytime you liked. No one could keep you someplace against your will. You could go anywhere, anytime, and no human or monster in the world could stop you.

That thought relaxed you. Your shoulders fell, the muscles releasing their tension for what seemed like the first time since Sans left. Your wings sagged, the tips slotting into the crack between two rocks behind you. But it seemed that was a bad idea, because, almost immediately, you felt something sharp pinch your right wing.

"Ahh!" You yelped, more out of surprise than pain, and flung your wings up. Undyne jumped, then laughed uproariously. It took you a second to realize what was so funny; there was a crab holding onto your bony wing for dear life. You and the crab stared at each other for a moment, before you came to your senses and started shaking your wing around violently. The damn thing just wouldn't let go, and you were finally forced to bend your wing over yourself uncomfortably to pry the animal off with your hand. You flung it, vengefully, into the ocean, feeling satisfied when it plopped into the water. Undyne found this all very hilarious.

"Oh yeah, laugh it up… I can't wait 'til a crab pinches you in the ass." You complained, but you could hardly stop a smile from creeping onto your face.

"No way, they wouldn't DARE! If any dumb crab touches me, I'LL PUNCH ITS SHELL IN! YOU HEAR THAT, CRABS?!" You couldn't help but to laugh. It was odd… if it weren't for all of the crap between the two of you, you felt like you and Undyne could've been pretty good friends. She reminded you of some of your human buddies from college. Undyne seemed to realize it at the same time, and both of you went quiet again. You cleared your throat and broke the silence,

"Uh, y'know… I'm sorry I'm taking up so much of everyone's time. I guess it's probably frustrating, having Papyrus working more for me than for you… and Alphys spending so much time in the lab…" Undyne scoffed and waved her hand dismissively, choosing to stare at the ocean rather than at you.

"I mean, yeah, it is a little bit, but… Alphys would've spent a lot of time in her lab, anyway. She loves that nerdy crap." She barked a laugh before continuing, "And, helping you… it's turning out to be a good way for her to earn Asgore's trust back. She probably would've been fired, otherwise..." Undyne trailed off and shrugged noncommittally. You turned away to look at the water, too; it was much easier to talk shoulder-to-shoulder.

"Y'know, once this is all over… when, and if, I get back into my human body... Asgore wants me to be an ambassador." You and Undyne watched a group of seagulls fly over the water. The sun was fully above the horizon now, causing the waves to shimmer in the light.

"Yeah I know, he told me." Undyne grunted. You weren't sure if this was going well or not. Before you could think of something else to say, your companion continued, "You're a pretty good talker, I'll give you that. Hell, maybe you can talk those humans into lettin' us out of that camp so that everyone can see all of _this_ " She made a big, sweeping motion with her arm, gesturing to the ocean. You hummed thoughtfully.

"I'll do my best. Kinda hard though, when the humans have a real reason to hate us… there's an awful lot of missing people associated with Mount Ebott." You approached the subject cautiously, sneaking a glance at Undyne. _This_ was what you'd really wanted to talk about. It was all well and good if Undyne held no grudge against you, but, for the sake of those kids who'd died in the Underground, you needed… something. You weren't sure what.

An apology would be a good start.

"Yeah, well…" Undyne scratched the back of her head, looking uncomfortable. "I looked at that poster you've got on your door, and most of those missing people didn't even fall down to us. Dunno what the hell's up with that."

"Some of them did, though." You pressed, "What happened to them?"

"You know!" She said, hotly, throwing you a sharp look. There was something vulnerable in her expression, though, so you didn't give it up.

"I know that they died, but I don't know exactly how. And I know that you attacked Frisk in the Underground with the intent to kill them."

"I'm not the only one!" She yelled defensively, her cheeks flushing with chagrin.

"No, I know…" You sighed and rubbed a hand over your skull. "I guess the reason I'm holding it against you, and not Asgore or anyone else, is because we've fought about this before." Undyne narrowed her eyes and looked ready to argue, but you cut her off before she could begin. "Not in this timeline… in another life. You remember how I said that Sans and I were erased from everyone's memories?" There was a beat of silence before Undyne reluctantly responded,

"Sure, I remember. Alphy tried to explain it to me, but that sciency crap goes over my head." She rolled her eyes, but you caught a hint of fondness in the gesture.

"Well, that argument was one of the things that got erased. You'll just have to trust me on that." You let Undyne have a moment to think about that. Eventually, she sighed, her shoulders slumping. When she spoke, she sounded meeker than you'd ever heard her.

"Still, it's not fair…" She glanced sideways at you before tugging on her ponytail nervously. "It was Asgore's orders, I was just following directions." You waited, feeling instinctively that she wasn't done talking. You were right.

"It was only two…" She bowed her head and bit her lip with her sharp fangs. "At first, you know… Asgore wanted to take care of it himself. But, after the third… I knew it was hurting him. I practically BEGGED him to let me help, and he didn't, at first. But, after the fourth kid came along… he said that, if I could get to them first, I could just bring the soul to him and he wouldn't ask any questions." Undyne hugged herself, turning her head away a fraction more. There was a long moment where the only sound that filled the void was the periodic roar of the crashing waves below.

"Thank you for telling me." You were quiet, staring down at your legs hanging over the edge of the cliff. "It's been bothering me, especially since those protesters at the border…" You didn't know why it mattered; why you cared about who exactly had killed the kids. But, somehow, it did. "I don't suppose you know their names, but you do think you could point them out on the poster for me? Maybe when we get back-"

"Third from the right on the top row and the first on the second row." You blinked, surprised that she knew this off the top of her head. She gave you a sad smile. "Like I said, I already looked at the poster. Their names were Evan and Leah."

Undyne hadn't explicitly apologized, but, at the moment, that was alright. You hadn't known what you'd needed from her before, but, seeing her expression as she acknowledged the sins she'd committed, you knew now that this was it.

"Okay." You said, simply, and that was that.

A few long minutes passed in which neither of you looked at each other, instead preferring to watch the waves roll in. Eventually, once she'd collected herself, Undyne broke the stoney silence.

"Hey, so… is it my turn to ask you a question?" She bared her teeth in a grin. You had a feeling you weren't going to like whatever this question was, but you supposed it was only fair.

"Shoot." You said while leaning back, resting your weight on your hands. Your wings stretched out to the sides, but you were careful not to stick them anyplace where there could be more hidden crabs. Apparently, you should've been more worried about the woman sitting next to you than any measly crabs, though, since before you could so much as raise an arm to defend yourself, Undyne had already clocked you upside the head with the palm of her hand.

"Ow! What the hell?!" You shot forward, your left hand rubbing the sore spot as you glared at your assailant.

"I should be asking you that question! Why the hell aren't you splitting up your souls anymore, punk?!" Undyne crossed her arms and frowned. "Alphy and Papyrus worked so hard to help you, and now you aren't going through with it? What gives?!"

You groaned. You'd been right; you didn't like this question.

"Never said we weren't gonna split… we just need more time to think about it." You mumbled, wincing as the pain lingered. Damn, Undyne really had a strong arm.

"What's there to think about?! You've had MONTHS to think! Are the two of you arguing about it in there, or something? Which one of you do I need to beat up?"

"No! No one!" You quickly held up your hands, palms forward, ready to fend her off if need be. "No one's arguing… no one's _around_ to argue with." You muttered that last part under your breath, but, unfortunately, Undyne heard it. She looked befuddled; less aggressive now, and more curious.

"What d'you mean?" You clenched your jaw. You hadn't told anyone about the situation… no one else had pressed this far. As soon as you'd said you needed time to think, everyone had just accepted it at face value. But… what would be the harm in telling Undyne? She was probably the most neutral person you knew, and wouldn't take sides. You didn't think she could help, either, but you might as well get it off your chest.

"Sans and I… we did have a fight. About something different." You sighed, your shoulders slumping. "He just… left. He's done this before… we've both done it, but not on purpose. Sometimes, we can kind of just… check out of reality. He doesn't even know what's going on around him right now, and I didn't want to split our souls without him here to give his consent. So I told everyone that I needed more time to think." You summed it up as best you could, though you didn't expect Undyne to understand the complicated intricacies of sharing a mind and body with another person. No one could possibly understand-

"So, he's giving you the silent treatment, basically." Your train of thought was abruptly interrupted, and, after thinking about it briefly, you laughed. At yourself, more than anything.

"Heh, yeah, basically." Undyne suddenly leapt to her feet and, confused, you followed suit. It took you a bit longer to stand and, by that time, Undyne had already paced back and forth, fuming at the situation.

"That's so stupid! What the hell does he think that's gonna solve?!" You blinked owlishly, surprised that she was defending you. Undyne jabbed a finger at your chest. "You two obviously need to talk it out! Have a heart-to-heart, and all that crap!"

"Well, I would," You began, gently pushing her hand down. "If he wasn't, y'know, ignoring me." She huffed and narrowed her eyes. You'd never seen someone get so angry in your defense.

"Well…. then you'll have to get him to KNOCK IT OFF!" She shouted, then asked, "Is there _any_ way to get him out of this stupid funk?"

"Uh…" You'd had varying results with bringing Sans back in the past, but you didn't think those other methods would work this time. He'd left on purpose, and would be expecting you to try and wake him up. "Not really… I mean, maybe if something really shocking or life-threatening happened…"

You shouldn't have said that, and you knew it as soon as the words left your mouth. A grin slowly spread across Unydne's face, and you quickly backed away.

"No no no… forget I said that. Whatever you're planning, don't you dare-" Before you could finish, Undyne had already moved. Lightning fast, she closed the distance between you. You dodged right, thinking that she was going to attack you, but stepping closer to the edge of the cliff had unwittingly made her job easier.

All she had to do was give you a quick shove, and suddenly, you were tumbling off of the cliff and toward the icy water below.


	25. Forza Orion

The fall was quick, but terrifying. The wind whipped past your face and reminded you of falling into the Underground. The only thought you had before plunging into the ocean was, _Do bones float?!_

The answer was a resounding "No."

You gasped as you hit the water, the force of the impact and the abrupt change in temperature sending a shockwave through your bones. You tried to flail your arms, but your head sunk underwater before you could even take a final breath of air. Desperately, you kicked your legs, rotated your arms, and even pumped your wings, but to no avail. The feeling of water filling your pelvis, your chest, and the inside of your skull was _unbearable_. You would've screamed, if you'd had the air to do so.

Instead, you held your breath, your primal fear giving you strength you didn't know you had. You writhed, but, no matter how much water you treaded, you never broke the surface. You couldn't tell how far you were from breathable air, and you weren't even sure if you were facing the right direction.

In a last-ditch effort, you opened up every shortcut near you in a burst of magical energy. You sunk into one, but you couldn't tell a difference in your surroundings. You were still underwater. Panic filled your bones, but the magic at your fingertips had no outlet. You practically crackled with unused energy. Flashes of blue and yellow from your right eye illuminated the water around you. You felt lightheaded from holding your breath. You were dying, you were really going to die…

 _Breathe._ A small voice in your head ordered you, but you _couldn't_ breathe, that was the whole problem-

 _You're a skeleton, you don't need air to breathe. We're not going to die._ It sure felt like you were, and breathing in water seemed like the worst idea when you were drowning, but…

You trusted the voice. You opened your mouth and took in a breath. The salty water flowed in through your mouth and out through your nose cavity, and relief flooded your system. You stopped struggling and let yourself sink slowly in the water, your muscles occasionally spasming from residual fear. But, despite your instinctive panic, you were, oddly, fine. You could breathe underwater.

Now that the danger was over (or, rather, now that you realized there was never any danger to begin with), you let your magic fizzle out. The shortcuts faded away. Your reaction seemed pretty stupid, now; how far away from shore were you after taking that shortcut? You could be in a completely different body of water, for all you knew. But, there were more pressing things on your mind.

 _Sans?_ You asked, hesitantly. Had Undyne's incredibly stupid idea actually worked?

 _Yeah, congrats. You woke me up by pretending to kill yourself. Clever._ You flinched, the action casing your legs to curl up closer to your chest in the fetal position.

 _It wasn't my idea…_ You showed him the tail end of your conversation with Undyne, _... but I am glad you're back. I really… I really wish you wouldn't leave again._ You chose your words carefully, but your bones shivered with fear and anxiety at the thought. You just felt so… _wrong_ whenever he wasn't there. It had only been a few days and you were already at your wits end.

 _Well, I really wish you wouldn't keep making decisions without me._ His inner voice sounded weak and far away, as if he was losing conviction.

 _I haven't been! I actually…_ You cut yourself off and decided to show him instead of explaining. You showed him how you'd postponed splitting your souls so that he could have a say in whether or not it happened. He questioned, quietly and wordlessly, why you were considering remaining as Orion. Cautiously, you showed him what Chara had said to you.

As you sunk slowly deeper, you guided Sans through a scattered, disjointed recollection of what had happened after he left. You expected him to disappear again at any moment, and so you were frantic as you tried to explain everything in as little time as possible. Sans didn't leave, though. Didn't say anything as he watched flashes of your memories pass him by.

You were suddenly interrupted as you felt your pelvis hit something hard. The rest of your body was soon to follow, and, when you twisted around, you realized that you'd hit the ocean floor. It wasn't terribly dark, so you couldn't have been that far underwater. That was a relief, at least.

 _Can you stand?_ Sans asked, and you felt a brief flutter of happiness that he was talking to you at all. Awkwardly, you managed to push yourself to your feet, though it felt like you were standing on the moon what with how light you were. _There's a big rock over there,_ Sans pointed out, and you turned to see what he was talking about, _If we get up on it, we might be tall enough to look around above water._ You silently agreed, took a deep breath of water, and started forward.

Your first step was far too enthusiastic. You pushed forward with as much force as it would've taken to walk on land, but, instead of taking your usual long stride, you shot up and forward with far more speed than you'd anticipated. You flailed helplessly as you went up, plateaued, and then started back down. The currents swept you sideways so, when you finally touched back down, you were far away from where you'd meant to end up. To top it off, once you did hit the ground again, your forward momentum caused you to tumble face-first into the sand. Sans was trying very hard to be stoic and brooding, but you could tell he was having a hard time controlling his laughter.

 _I swear, I'm gonna kick Undyne's ass when we get back to land._ You thought as you stood again, but with far more glee than the words suggested. You were just happy that Sans was here, and that he didn't seem like he was going to leave right away. Honestly, you were more likely to hug Undyne than kick her ass.

You were more careful with your steps next time, so as not to go flying away. Hopping seemed the most efficient means of travel, so that was what you did. Every time your feet hit the ground, you sent up a cloud of sand in your wake. It was quite satisfying, and even a little fun. The scenery was incredibly beautiful, too, when you weren't drowning. The water was pretty clear; algae must've had a hard time growing in such a rough, rocky coastline. Early morning sunlight cast a soft, blue glow over everything, and interesting, underwater rock formations cast long shadows on the ocean floor. Eventually, a few fish even got curious enough to come over and check you out. You didn't know much about fish and had no clue what species they were, but they seemed innocent enough. One of them got under your billowing robe and tried to swim up in your ribcage. You let out a full-body shiver before it thankfully swam out on its own, oblivious to your discomfort.

The big rock that you were trying to get to was pretty far away, especially when unexpected currents kept picking you up and sweeping you away from where you were trying to go. As such, it took longer than it would have to walk the same distance on dry land.

Both you and Sans were silent. You were afraid to break the tentative peace in case you accidentally said something that made him leave again. Eventually, as you approached the base of the rock and contemplated how best to climb it, Sans spoke in your mind.

 _You were right._ You froze, your left hand resting against the jagged rock. _I overreacted. I should've waited to hear the whole story. If I'd killed the kid, I…_ He shuddered, his revulsion with himself practically palpable. _...I would've regretted it._

You let your hand slide off of the rock. A few, stray bubbles escaped from your joints. When you said nothing, Sans continued,

 _And, uh… I was an ass… for leaving like that. You were just tryin' to protect Frisk, you didn't deserve… I shouldn't've…_ He trailed off, leaving an awkward silence in his wake.

Suddenly, you snapped back into action. You put both hands on the rock formation, the claws of your right hand digging into a deep groove in its surface. You began to climb, and, actually, it was a lot easier than walking underwater. There were many pocket holes and notches in the rock, which you used to pull yourself up. Besides, you were practically weightless and, even if you did fall, you'd just float gently back down. There was no pressure.

 _It's okay, don't worry about it._ You thought, briskly, as you made steady upward progress.

 _...What? But-_

 _No, really. It's_ water _under the bridge, heh._ You knew something was very wrong when Sans didn't laugh at the bad pun. He seemed troubled and confused.

 _Y'know, I'm not usually one to want to talk about feelings and stuff either, but this seems like an unhealthy level of avoidance... even to me._ A flash of anxiety lit up in your bones. You _really_ didn't want to talk… well, you did, but you were just so afraid of saying something wrong…

Unfortunately, Sans had heard that thought.

 _Shit, I'm sorry… I'm not going to leave again, I…_ He hesitated, then sighed. _I promise._

You realized, now, why Sans didn't like your promises. They didn't _do_ anything; you were still anxious, still unsettled by how quickly everything could fall apart between the two of you. The vow was only a balm for the person who said it, especially when you knew that Sans could never keep such a promise. He didn't always have control over when he dissociated since, most of the time, it wasn't on purpose. You had to just… be _better_ , so that this wouldn't happen again…

 _No, damn it! It's not your fault. I'm just…_ broken _like that._

 _You wouldn't be this way if I hadn't played that damn game-_

 _What? What happened in Undertale has nothing to do with-_

 _It has to do with_ everything _... it's why you dissociate, why you're terrified of Chara, why you feel out of control all the time…_ You stopped climbing and pressed your forehead against the rock, your teeth bared. _I know that, and yet I_ keep _taking control from you, keep hurting you… so of_ course _I forgive you! I deserved it. I deserve more, after what I've done…_ Your breathing was ragged. Was it possible to cry underwater? You might find out soon. _I know I keep fucking up, but I don't know how to stop. Every time something like this happens... I always think I'm doing the right thing, or that what I'm doing doesn't affect anyone. But, really, I'm just making everything worse. Maybe I'm just... a bad person._ A second ticked by, and then another. You could barely make out what Sans was saying when he spoke.

 _You're not a bad person. I would know, right? I mean, we share a soul._ You felt a warm glow flare in your chest, trying to sooth away your anxieties and self-doubt. _And, hey… at least you try to do the right thing. I hardly ever try to do anything, right or wrong. So you've got me beat, there._ You snorted, expelling water out your nose cavity and scaring away a few, small fish.

 _We both suck, don't we?_ You began to climb again, but slower, this time. You were nearly at the top.

 _It'll all be easier once we're in separate bodies._ The comment, which was meant to reassure you, made your magic twist nervously instead. You thought back to everything Chara had told you, and felt Sans mulling it over, too. Your main argument for why you should split was that you and Sans didn't get along… but was that even true? On the good days, having him always there in your head was more of a comfort than an inconvenience. He'd become like your security blanket, and you suspected that the feeling was mutual. But then, the bad days…

 _It keeps getting worse,_ Sans pointed out, and he wasn't wrong. _The arguing. Hurting each other. You were right when you said we were losing ourselves. I think we should end it, before we really go off the deep end._

 _But, Orion…_

 _They want to do this. At least, they did, last we heard._ He was right. Orion had, so far, been coldly logical about the whole situation. They'd weighed the value of Sans' life and yours against their own, and found that your two lives were greater than theirs. But would they feel the same after hearing this new information from Chara? You didn't know, since they hadn't formed since then.

 _I just think Orion should have more of a say, since it's their life we're ending._ You thought, sullenly. Sans had never really thought of Orion as their own person… at least, not to the same extent that you did. His mind buzzed with activity as he considered this. It was a nice change of pace from the dead silence you'd been getting from him recently.

 _Tell you what… let's give it a week. Just like last time._ In your mind's eye, you saw a vision of that last, pseudo-date between you and Sans, but from Sans' perspective. You saw yourself, sitting across a candlelit table, your cane resting between your legs and the spaghetti on your plate left untouched. You looked determined. You heard Sans' voice say, _"We're waiting at least a week, and… if you still want to go through with it…"_

The flashback was dispelled as soon as it came, Sans having waved it away like a pest. Remembering how you and Sans had interacted in separate bodies was… odd, to say the least. The two of you had known each other in the same body far longer than in separate ones.

 _That seems fair._ You reasoned. After all, if you and Sans had taken a week to think about becoming Orion, it was only fitting that Orion take a week to think about splitting. _We can work under the assumption that we're going through with it, and, if Orion changes their mind…_ You hesitated. How could you have a conversation with someone who literally could not exist at the same time as you? Was it even possible for Orion to disagree with both you and Sans? _...We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, I guess._

 _Alright, then._ Sans said, sounding satisfied. Both of you were relieved that you weren't arguing about this.

As if on cue, you reached the top of the rock right as you and Sans reached an agreement. The rock was almost like a pointed spire, with a wide base but a small tip. You clambered onto the top of it carefully, afraid to stand up to your full height. The current was strong here, and you didn't want to get blown all the way to the bottom again. Even on your hands and knees, you were being pushed around precariously. To test how far from the surface you were, you extended one of your wings up, and were relieved when you felt cold, dry air on your feathers. You waved it around for a bit, before it was submerged again under an incoming wave. If you could just stand up for a moment to see where the shoreline was…

Suddenly, something big barrelled into you out of nowhere. It swept you right off of your rock and carried you away, the water rushing past you at high speeds. _A shark?!_ You thought, wildly, as you began to writhe. Sans was just about to skewer it with a bone when you caught sight of vivid, red hair swirling around you.

Your head broke the surface, and you were suddenly assaulted with the sound of crashing waves and Undyne yelling at you.

"OH MY GOD, STOP SQUIRMING!" You did stop, more out of shock than anything. You hacked and coughed as you transitioned from breathing water to breathing air again. At the same time, you whipped your head back and forth, trying to see what was happening. It took you a moment to realize that Undyne was behind you, with both arms around your spine, her fingers locked onto your last pair of ribs through the fabric of your robe.

"Undyne?!" The captain of the Royal Guard herself was nearly submerged, what with your weight dragging her down. It didn't help that her face was level with your hood, which was currently doing its best to suffocate her. You felt her legs kicking wildly beside yours.

"YES! NOW STAY STILL, DAMMIT!" With that, you were abruptly dunked underwater again. You gasped, your eyes and nose stinging as the air was forced out of them. With difficulty, you made yourself go limp, allowing Undyne to carry you… presumably, to shore. You couldn't really see where you were going in your current position.

Soon, you began to notice the ground raising up beneath you at an alarming rate. You tried to wriggle out of Undyne's grasp, but her hold on you was too strong. Just when you thought you were about to slam into the ground face-first, Undyne flipped you around and dragged you onto dry land. You couldn't stop her from pulling you along while you coughed, heaving up big mouthfuls of water. But, as soon as you were able, you flailed, pulling her hands off of your ribs.

"Get offa me!" You gasped in between coughs. Thankfully, she heard you over the sound of the roaring waves, and dropped you. She stood over you as you rolled onto your side, expelling the last of the water in your skull with a shiver.

"Holy shit, I thought I killed you! I didn't know you'd sink like that… fuck, you're like a dead weight in the water!" You got up on your hands and knees, just before another wave rolled in and washed over your legs.

"You're… damn lucky… I don't need air... to breathe." You said between breaths. You glared up at Undyne, who actually looked a little abashed. You couldn't help but to laugh, but it came out as more of a breathless wheeze. Walking underwater had been kind of cool, but man… the transition back to land really sucked.

As soon as she saw you laughing, Undyne joined in. She gave you a toothy grin before holding out her hand, which you took gratefully.

"I jumped in after you when I saw you go under… but, shit, you sunk so fast! What the hell are you hiding in those bones?!" As soon as she pulled you to your feet, she gave you a friendly push to the shoulder. You stumbled back, barely managing to keep your balance. You were grinning like a fool. Now that you were back on land, the situation seemed a lot funnier.

"Dunno… I panicked and took a shortcut as I was sinking, but I think it just took me further into the ocean…" You looked around for the first time at your surroundings. It seemed like you and Undyne were on the rocky shore right next to the cliff she'd pushed you off of. At least you hadn't ended up somewhere in the Pacific, or something.

"Oh my god! That's why I couldn't find you!" Undyne laughed, flipping her wet hair over her shoulder absentmindedly. "Why didn't you just teleport to shore, then?!" That gave you pause. You hadn't really thought about that.

"I… um… well, most of the shortcuts just led to more water, and the ones that didn't… I just didn't want to accidentally teleport in front of some humans, or something stupid like that." You made something up with a nonchalant shrug, to which Undyne snorted.

"Well, good thinking getting up on that rock. If I hadn't seen your wing waving around, I would've never found you!"

"We could've gotten back to land by ourselves!" You retorted defensively. You actually hadn't even considered that Undyne might've jumped in to save you. It made you feel a little better to know that she wouldn't have just left you there to drown.

"Oh, so it's 'we' again? Did it work?" You were taken aback by the question. You poked Sans, who had been quiet ever since Undyne showed up. He gave you a lazy nudge back. You had a feeling that this exchange would happen a lot in the coming days, as you would need to reassure yourself that he was still here and hadn't left you again.

You felt a flood of guilt from Sans, drowning you far more effectively than the water had.

"Yeah, it worked. You're insane, but it worked." Undyne did a fist pump in the air, then punched you in the shoulder again.

"Nice! So did you and that knucklehead talk or whatever at the bottom of the ocean?" You reached back and wrung out the hood of your robe as you considered how much to tell your new, fishy friend.

"Yeah, we talked… he wants to split our souls, too…" Undyne gave a preemptive _"whoop!"_ of triumph, before you held up a finger and continued, "...but we're gonna wait a week before doing it."

"What?! Why?" She put her hands on her hips and gave you a cross look. She didn't know about Orion, and you didn't want to get into that with her...

"Just wanna make sure we're doing the right thing." It wasn't a lie, just… a simplification of the truth. Undyne seemed to notice, because her eyes narrowed. But, mercifully, she seemed to realize you weren't going to talk, and let it drop.

"Ugh, fine. I did my job… whatever you two punks decide, it's your problem now!" She bared her teeth in a grin before starting off abruptly, beckoning you forward. "Come on! I left my shoes up on that cliff… wait, can you teleport us up there?!" She stopped and looked at you with bright, eager eyes. Sure enough, when you looked down, you saw that Undyne's feet were bare. You shouldn't have been surprised to see that they were webbed. That had to have been how she swam to shore without the use of her arms, _and_ while carrying your "dead weight," to boot.

With a sigh, you called up the shortcuts. Alarmingly, they appeared only for a moment before spluttering and fading away. You felt suddenly heavy and exhausted.

 _You're too drained… you used up all of your energy freaking out while we were sinking._ Sans pointed out as he eased control from you, using his own magic to do what you couldn't. It only took a second for him to find a shortcut which led back up to the top of the cliff.

 _I didn't know that could happen…_ It was concerning to you; you thought you'd become a pro at the shortcuts, but now you couldn't even make them visible.

 _Don't worry, it's temporary. You'll feel better after you eat something._ Sans grinned at Undyne and waved her forward before walking into the shortcut. But, once he was through, _he_ suddenly felt drained, himself. He stumbled and grunted, the shortcut wavering. A burst of terror was all that kept him from letting the shortcut crumple on top of Undyne. Even so, it snapped closed almost instantly behind her.

Before he could collapse, he immediately sat down, cradling his head in his hands.

"Woah, you okay? What happened?" Of course, your new friend hadn't sensed that anything was wrong with the portal. She had no idea that she'd almost been lost between the folds of the fabric of space and time…

 _Sans? What's wrong?_ You pestered him at the same time as Undyne. It took him a moment to gather himself. To Undyne, he gave a fake, but convincing, smile.

"I'm fine, just a lil' tired." She hesitated, looking like she was about to argue. Before she could, Sans added, "Didn't you wanna grab your shoes?" He jerked his thumb toward the edge of the cliff, where Undyne's brown boots were waiting. She grunted,

"Yeah… just a minute." Sans watched her go, still holding his head with one hand as you buzzed with worry inside.

 _Guess you must've tapped into my energy, too._ He said with a frown. _You're getting pretty good at this magic stuff, kid._ You felt warm, in spite of how tired the both of you were. He hadn't called you "kid" in a long time, and you were glad that the familiar nickname was back.

 _I didn't realize the shortcuts were that dangerous._ You said, a little nervous. Sans waved you off.

 _Nah, they're not, really. Doesn't take much magic to open one… I've actually never had one almost close on me like that before. And, even if it had closed, it's more likely that Undyne would've just gotten left behind on the shore. It only gets hairy when someone's only partway through…_ You watched as Sans recalled a hazy memory; one of him as an adolescent. He was messing around with his shortcuts, throwing a ball at one and trying to close it as it was going through. When he finally succeeded, the ball just… disappeared. Even when Sans reopened the shortcut, it didn't come flying out. It was simply gone, stuck somewhere in limbo.

 _Okay, noted._ You thought, weakly. That would've been nice to know before you started messing around with shortcuts, but you resisted the temptation to give Sans a hard time about it.

By the time you'd finished talking in your collective mind, Undyne was done putting her shoes back on. Sans looked up at her as she walked back over to where you were sitting.

"Hey, you wouldn't happen to have any monster food on you, wouldja?" He asked with a hopeful grin. She furrowed her brows and dug through her pockets. Surprisingly, she did have something, which she pulled out of her pants with a bark of laughter.

"Oh man, you're lucky! I forgot Papyrus gave me this!" It seemed to be a piece of monster candy. It wasn't much, but it would be plenty enough for Sans to open a shortcut back home. "It's probably soggy, but that's what you get for making me dive into the ocean to save your ass!" Sans refrained from pointing out that it was Undyne who pushed you into the ocean to begin with, and just took the candy from her instead. He felt instantly better when he popped it into his mouth, biting down on the hard candy until it shattered.

 _Ugh, really? You chew your candy?_ You thought, revolted by the feel of swallowing the chewed up sweet. Sans said nothing, but smiled smugly.

"Alright, think I've had enough of the beach." He stood and stretched, his shoulders popping and wings flaring out before they were tucked neatly behind his back once more. Undyne snorted and rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, you don't say?! I think we've been here for hours!" Even so, Sans caught Undyne glancing back at the water with a longing expression as he opened up the shortcut home. It was mid-morning here, but he could see through the shortcut that it was pitch black in your living room. He held it open for a moment, making sure he was strong enough before motioning Undyne forward.

"You go first this time… just walk forward." Sans didn't usually like sending other people through first, in case they wandered off at an odd angle and missed the shortcut entirely. But he wasn't taking any chances this time. He waited for Undyne to cross the threshold before following her, leaving the rocky shoreline abandoned once more.


	26. One on Two

The following days were far more peaceful than they'd been in a long while. All of the preparation that had been needed to split you and Sans up was already done; just waiting for your go-ahead. You suddenly found yourself without much to do, so you'd come up with a sort of physical therapy regimen for the body… more for your own sanity than for its well-being. You didn't relish the thought of waking up in a weak, starving, atrophied body. There wasn't much you could do about the starving and weak parts, aside from filling the body full of fluids from the IV. But you hoped that stretching and massaging its limbs would at least help with the inevitable atrophy.

Otherwise, you and Sans spent a lot of time just hanging out with your friends. It wasn't quite as organized or dramatic as the week-long sendoff you'd given yourself back in the Underground, but the principle idea was the same. You wanted to spend some time with everyone, just in case things didn't go well.

Papyrus was working overtime for Undyne, now that he was no longer needed in the lab. But, on one of his rare days off, he, you, and Sans spent the whole afternoon cooking together. It was a bit of a squeeze, trying to fit your two bodies in the kitchen… especially since Papyrus refused to ever take off his bulky Royal Guard armour. The three of you talked while you cooked, discussing topics that you usually tried hard to avoid. Sans was the one who brought it up first; out of nowhere, while Papyrus was stirring the spaghetti noodles, he asked,

"Pap, what was it like… living with Gerson?" You and Papyrus were equally surprised. He glanced over at Sans nervously, then quickly snapped back to his usual, chipper attitude.

"It was… good! He was nice… and I got to sleep over at Undyne's place all the time!" He shot Sans another look but, seeing that his brother wasn't upset, he continued, "I always used to wish I had a sibling… I used to tell the other kids at school that Undyne was my sister, sometimes! And, one time, Undyne and I tried to get her mom and Gerson together, so that we could be siblings for real! It was great fun! But, er… it didn't work out." Sans chuckled at the image of a botched parent trap situation. Pap gave him a sheepish smile.

"I am glad you found me, sibling." Papyrus was always genuine, but this moment felt more tender than usual. He wasn't looking at you, but had his eyes trained on the pasta. "Did we… um… grow up together? In your memory?" You felt such fondness in Sans' soul when he looked at his brother. Really, Papyrus wasn't all that different in this timeline. Some new experiences, but at least, at his core, he was still the same person Sans had known all his life.

"Yeah, bro. Did you…" Sans coughed to clear his throat, then looked away. "Did you want to hear about it?"

An eager nod from Papyrus was all it took to open the floodgates. Over the smell of burning pasta, Sans told Papyrus more about himself and their life together than he'd ever willingly told you. Of course, you already knew the gist of it; being Orion gave you some unique insight into Sans' memories, but only the ones that the amalgam happened to think about while they were together.

You knew that Sans' first memory was of waking up in a dark room with no idea of who he was or how he got there, but you hadn't known that the abandoned building he'd woken up in was destined to get renovated to become Alphys' lab many years later. You knew that Sans had help when he was a kid raising Papyrus on his own, but you hadn't realized just how _much_ help. Gerson wasn't the only kind soul… there'd been others who offered food and shelter. Other homeless kids they'd banded together with for a while. A teacher who'd found them and suggested they enroll in a free, public school. You knew that Sans hadn't gone on to further his education after the monster equivalent of high school, instead taking on as many jobs as he could to earn money, but you hadn't known that he and Papyrus had fought about it. Papyrus had said that Sans was too smart to waste his potential on menial jobs, and Sans had blown him off by saying that he was just too lazy to bother with college…

While Sans explained to his brother the life they used to have together, you felt like an intruder. These stories - cobbled together and messy, like life usually was - were not meant for you. As these thoughts simmered uncomfortably in your mind, Sans paused his storytelling to address you,

 _I don't mind if you hear this… really. If I weren't telling it to Paps all at once like this, you'd probably hear it all from me eventually, anyway._ The implication that you and Sans would be friends long enough to hear all of these little anecdotes about each other was both daunting and reassuring.

Papyrus was an active listener. He winced, laughed, and interjected with his own stories when appropriate. He made it feel more like a conversation and less like Sans was just reciting his autobiography.

The problem was that, with this going on, no one was paying attention to the spaghetti you were supposed to be cooking. You were fairly certain Papyrus had sabotaged the meal more than once so you'd have to start over, just to give Sans more time to talk. By the time Undyne and Alphys got home from whatever they'd been doing, the kitchen was in a state of disarray, and you didn't even have anything to show for it. You all ended up going over to Toriel's house for dinner, where you correctly assumed she'd made enough surplus food to feed an army. Sans had never really gotten to finish his stories, having only gotten as far as buying that old house in Snowdin.

But, that was alright… there'd be time enough for that later.

Setting aside special time to hang out with Alphys seemed a little redundant after having spent so much time alone with her while working on the DTEM and the epinephrine, but you and Sans ended up hanging out with her, anyway. She and Sans did a few more dry runs of the DTEM, making sure it was still working after having been left to collect dust for a few weeks. With you, Alphys discussed human biology. She seemed genuinely interested, and was excited when you said you'd give her your old school textbooks once you could get your hands on them again.

Now that you and Undyne were friends, you actually saw quite a lot of her. The two of you got along inexplicably well, and would sometimes end up neglecting Papyrus and Alphys whenever you were over at their house. Sans had no gripe with Undyne, but he was dumbfounded by your friendship with her.

 _Only three days ago, the two of you wanted to rip each other's throats out._ He explained with a mental shrug when you questioned him about it. _Just don't make much sense, is all. Seems a little_ fishy _to me._

You didn't let Sans' indifference toward Undyne get you down. You returned her friendly punches and went over to watch old VCR tapes with her, Alphys, and Papyrus whenever she deemed it was "anime night."

The only person you purposefully avoided was Frisk. The only time you ever saw them was at dinner, because you couldn't bring yourself to break the tradition of eating over at Toriel's house. Sans, especially, was weary around the kid, and was torn between wanting to keep a close eye on them and wanting to stay as far away as possible. Fearing another murderous episode from Sans, you cast your vote toward staying far away. You weren't afraid of Chara like Sans was; the only reason they'd been able to do any of those awful things in the game was because you'd enabled them to, and you weren't about to make the same mistake twice. Besides, whenever you did see Frisk, the poor kid seemed scared enough of you that you doubted they were going to let Chara resurface again anytime soon.

That careful avoidance was shattered, though, about five days after the trip to Italy. It was the middle of the afternoon, and you were sitting on the floor of your living room in silence. It was only two days until you and Sans were supposed to split your souls, and Orion still hadn't shown up to give their opinion on the matter. It was worrisome... and quite odd, too. Before Sans had left that last time, Orion was showing up on almost a daily basis. Why had the frequency of their formation suddenly come to a grinding halt? You and Sans were both mulling it over in your mind when a booming knock on the door broke you from your reverie.

"HEY, PUNK! OPEN UP!"

So it was Undyne, then. But you heard another indistinct, but unmistakable voice on the other side of the door. What could Papyrus and Undyne possibly want? Weren't they supposed to be working?

You pulled yourself to your feet as quickly as you could, since you were sure Undyne would kick down the door if you kept her waiting too long. Sure enough, when you threw the door open, she was poised to ram it with her shoulder. When she saw you, she blinked in surprise, then relaxed and gave you a predatory grin.

"Hey, nerd! Are you ready to spar?!" You didn't fully comprehend what she was asking you, since your eyes were drawn to the kid holding Papyrus' hand. What was Frisk doing here?

"...Huh?" You forced yourself to tear your gaze away from Frisk, who had shrunk behind Papyrus as soon as your eyes had met.

"Sparring! We're doing it, right now!" She lurched forward to grab your arm. You went along with her as she dragged you out of your house; it was just easier that way. Beside you, Papyrus began chattering, still holding Frisk's hand as they walked.

"We cleared a space in front of Undyne's old house!" He seemed excited, though about what, you weren't entirely sure.

"What's going on, exactly? Who's sparring who?" You inquired as you were led up the street, towards the Underground. Instead of answering you, Undyne stopped suddenly.

"Oh, hey! You can teleport us there, right?" Everyone stared at you eagerly. You looked from person to person, unsure. Taking three people through at least two shortcuts… if it had been last week, you wouldn't have hesitated. But, after that near disaster last time…

 _You'll do fine... but, if you're too nervous, I suppose I could do it instead._ You appreciated Sans' offer, but his confidence in you boosted your own.

 _I'll do it if you spot me._ He understood what you meant by that without any need for explanation. Much like when he was first teaching you, the two of you together opened a shortcut in the middle of the road which led up to the mouth of the Underground. You picked out the shortcut, and Sans leant you his magic. With the two of you combined working to accomplish what was, admittedly, a pretty menial task, there was no way the wormhole would close unexpectedly on you this time.

"Yeah. You'll all have to stick real close, though. Single-file line." You didn't need to say it twice; everyone promptly scrambled to queue up behind you. Amusingly, they ended up lined up by height, with Frisk in the back, Papyrus in the middle, and Undyne in front. It was fitting that you were in the lead, given that you were the tallest.

As soon as everyone was in place, you walked over to the open shortcut. Using Sans' intimate knowledge of almost every shortcut in the Underground, the two of you plotted out a course. Getting to Undyne's house was a bit awkward, and the route with the least amount of walking ended up being a whopping four shortcuts away. With both of you working at it, you were easily able to hold the portals open, only letting them ease shut once Frisk was through. In seconds, you led the group from the road, to the barrier, to Snowdin forest, to some craggy outcropping of rock in Hotland, and, finally, to the short walkway leading up to Undyne's house. When you arrived at your destination, you turned to see Undyne gaping at you open-mouthed.

"That was… did we go to Hotland for a sec? What the heck was that all about?!" While Undyne talked, Papyrus peeked around her shoulder. Soon after, you saw Frisk's head poking around Papyrus' leg. You blinked, momentarily befuddled. You took the shortcuts so often that you forgot, sometimes, that most people didn't know how they worked.

"Yeah, it's… uh… I don't actually _make_ the shortcuts, I just travel through ones that're already there. So I couldn't just take us straight here, since there isn't one that leads from camp to your place. Had to get creative." You shrugged, and felt a twinge of disappointment from Sans.

 _You're not supposed to explain it… takes the fun out of it._ He complained, and you rolled your eyes. You didn't understand that whole mysterious schtick he had going.

"So you're telling me that you can't teleport from your place to mine, but you CAN teleport from your place to freakin' Italy?!" Papyrus and Frisk gave Undyne identical, questioning looks. Undyne seemed to have kept to the agreement and not told anyone about your little trip. A bead of sweat formed on her brow as she realized her mistake.

"Heh, uh… NEVERMIND." She pushed past you suddenly, then turned and bared her teeth in a grin. "You shouldn't've told me that, punk! Now I know how your weird teleporting thing works, and I can use it against you in battle!" Alarmingly, a spear formed in her hand as she spoke, and she emphasized her words by pointing it in your direction. You were pretty sure you knew who was supposed to be sparring who, now.

Sure enough, when your eyes darted around nervously, you saw that the space had been prepared for this battle. Like Papyrus had said, the area in front of Undyne's house was clear, with all of her dummies and training equipment having been pushed to the side of the cavern wall. There were two bales of hay on the ground in front of her fish-shaped house, which Papyrus and Frisk quickly scrambled to go sit on. Frisk was looking excited for the first time since showing up at your front door; once they were settled on the hay, they leaned forward in their seat to watch you and Undyne with wide, eager eyes. Papyrus was in much the same position, though he was trying harder to keep it cool by crossing his arms over his armoured chest.

Your gaze dragged back over to Undyne, who was looking a lot more menacing now that you knew you were supposed to fight her. Now that you thought about it, Undyne _had_ mentioned sparring once before when you were all hanging out together, but you'd thought she was joking. And Papyrus _may_ have said something about wanting to watch… but, again, you'd thought this was all just a joke. You couldn't have been more wrong.

"Uh…" You frantically nudged Sans for help. He just shrugged and suggested an unhelpful fish pun ( _If you think of a good way to get outta this, let_ minnow). You took a step back, your pupils dilating anxiously.

"NGHAAA! If you're not gonna make the first move, then I WILL!" Suddenly, Undyne was charging you. Before you could even flinch, Sans had taken control and stepped sideways through a shortcut. You watched Undyne's back as she came to a screeching halt, sending dust flying up at her feet.

"Gotta say, I'm _gill_ ty of not knowing what the _carp_ is going on, here." He winked, which only seemed to incite your opponent. She heaved her glowing, greenish blue spear up and threw it at you like it weighed nothing. Your magic leapt in your throat, but Sans was cool as a cucumber. He stepped back through the same shortcut, the spear hitting the rock that had been behind you only moments before. It shattered on impact, disappearing before the pieces even hit the ground. Sans, finding himself right behind Undyne, reached out and tapped her on the shoulder.

"I think this was a bit of a misunderstanding… maybe you should _scale_ back on the deadly spears so we can talk this out?" In answer, Undyne summoned another spear as quick as lightning and jabbed upwards. It would've caught you in the ribs if Sans hadn't feigned right. He shrugged,

"Not much of a fighter, myself… but thanks for the opper _tuna_ ty." Again, Undyne lunged for him. And, again, he escaped through a shortcut. This continued, with Sans' puns getting worse and worse every time. His dodging never suffered, though, and you slowly began to relax as you grew to trust Sans not to let you get hurt. After a few more turns of this, you found yourself laughing at his puns along with Frisk, who was doubled over and clutching their stomach. Papyrus had a frown on his face, and seemed torn between wanting to verbally disapprove of Sans' joke and wanting to keep quiet so as not to disturb the battle.

Undyne kept getting angrier with each missed attack. It didn't help that Sans had clasped his hands behind his back, making every miss that much more infuriating. After Sans goaded her into breaking her own window with a spear, she snapped.

"UGH! FIGHT BACK, ALREADY!" Sans chuckled, amused by her frustration. As he was wracking his brain for a fish pun he hadn't used yet, you noticed something… off. Undyne was smiling like she was about to land a hit, even though there was no spear in her hands.

Instinctively, you snatched back control and ducked. Just in time, too, since an orange spear whizzed above your head. Undyne had to dodge left just to avoid getting hit by her own trick spear.

 _Yikes. Nice one, kid._ You glowed with pride at the praise. You'd never been in a fight before… it was pretty exhilarating. Your skull twisted into a broad grin. _Okay, you're officially enjoying this too much._ Sans thought, only half-joking. You laughed as you dodged another one of Undyne's spears. It was so _easy_ to move in this body; all of your joints bent and rolled fluidly and without pain. You'd never really appreciated that before now.

 _We should try working together… like with the shortcuts._ If the two of you could pool your magic together for that, then why not other things?

 _Oh, so now you want to spar all the sudden?_ Sans absentmindedly took back control, walking through a shortcut to avoid a volley of three spears.

 _It might be fun._ You admitted. Something nagged at Sans, though. His eyes flicked briefly to Frisk, who was still sitting on the sidelines. The kid seemed to be enjoying the banter between you and Undyne, but they had a painfully intimate knowledge of Sans' fighting style. He didn't want to scare them, or somehow trigger Chara into taking control.

 _No blasters._ You compromised, taking control of the body to duck under another orange spear.

 _No bones, period._ Sans amended, which stumped you. What the hell was left, then?

You didn't get much time to think about it, because Undyne was stepping up her game. She was lobbing spear after spear at you, summoning them as fast as she could throw them. You knew an orange one was coming behind you whenever she paused. It became an unspoken agreement that Sans would focus on avoiding the blue ones, and you'd read Undyne's body language to warn him when you thought an orange spear was coming.

Your job took significantly less brainpower, so you pondered how best to fight back what with your self-imposed handicap. Sans could easily throw her against a wall with his blue magic, but you knew from experience how painful that could be. You didn't want to actually _hurt_ Undyne… if you could just _contain_ her…

Suddenly, Undyne broke pattern and charged at you. You realized what she was doing a split second too late; the latest shortcut Sans had taken brought the two of you close to a wall, and Undyne's charge pinned you against it. The impact of your spine hitting rock knocked the wind out of you. Sans' hands automatically went to clutch at Undyne's forearm, but he couldn't pull her off of him when she was leaning her whole weight on his neck. She grinned triumphantly and summoned a spear in her spare hand, its tip pointing directly at your skull. Sans switched from tugging on her arm to holding onto the pointy end of the weapon, sweating as he struggled to keep it from stabbing him in the eye socket.

"HA! Give up, wimp!" Undyne gloated, and you wracked your brain for a way to still salvage this. Sans had your eyes fixed on the spear, and you remembered how they'd shattered on impact so easily before. You couldn't move your head with Undyne pinning you like this, but maybe…

You tried communicating your idea to Sans, but he was rather preoccupied with not getting stabbed in the face. You took it upon yourself to gather up your magic, borrowing a little from Sans' store, too. You'd never used blue magic before, but, if you could open shortcuts, who was to say you couldn't do everything else that Sans could? You felt the power of the magic pumping around you, and you focused it all on a point in the middle of the spear's handle... right where Undyne was holding it. You imagined the magic pressing in on that point from all sides… picturing what it might look like if the weight of the spear collapsed in on itself. If the negligible gravity of the spear were suddenly increased to the point where it could no longer hold its shape…

As you concentrated, a blue glow began to emanate from under Undyne's scaly fingers. She didn't seem to notice it, but she sure did notice when the spear she was holding suddenly crumpled and shattered in her hand. She yelled in surprise and loosened her hold on you. Now that there was no more spear for him to block, Sans took advantage of it and pushed Undyne off of him. He side-stepped through another shortcut, blinking away from the wall and into the middle of the clearing.

 _Damn, how'd you do that?_ You didn't have time to answer Sans' question. The fight was still on... and Undyne was more enraged than ever. What had started out as a friendly spar was beginning to get a little too aggressive for your taste as she hurled more spears at you, snarling menacingly. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Papyrus throw up a shield of bones around himself and Frisk, who were getting pelted with runaway spears.

Sans ducked and weaved, dodging through shortcut after shortcut. Ordinarily, he would've been exhausted by now, but he still felt as spry as he had at the beginning of the fight. The problem wasn't with his stamina, but the sheer number of spears Undyne was summoning. He was amazed that _she_ wasn't tired. It was clear that this was not going to end unless you and Sans did something to stop it.

Suddenly, you felt a full-body shockwave run through your bones as you and Sans felt yourselves become Orion. You immediately stopped the fruitless effort of dodging through shortcuts, preferring instead to stand your ground. Undyne hadn't expected you to stop so abruptly, and a spear whizzed past where you would've been if you'd kept moving.

Your invisible magic rushed around her, swirling and coalescing like an angry storm. You put your hands behind your back and walked slowly toward her, your expression relaxed and impassive. She visibly sagged, her knees shaking with the effort of holding herself up. Her face was scrunched in confusion; she couldn't see what was weakening her, and wasn't perceptive enough to feel the magic around her. She tried to summon a spear, but the effort was quickly snuffed out.

As the suffocating magic closed tighter in around your opponent, you began to see flashes of it flickering in and out of the physical realm. Every now and then, something that looked almost metallic would flash into view. A chain?

Whatever… you didn't much care what it looked like. What mattered was that Undyne was helpless to fight against it. She tried once more, but wheezed when the force of her bonds stopped her before she could so much as raise a hand against it. Her legs gave, and you caught her with blue magic before she could fall. You held her a few inches above the ground, but she was still shorter than you. You came to a stop in front of her, looking down at her with one brow quirked up. She panted, barely able to raise her head to look at you.

" _Fine_ , I… I give up. You win." Upon hearing this, you dispelled your magic immediately. It flew outward in a single pulse, washing over you harmlessly. When it hit the spectators, it unintentionally disintegrated the bone shield Papyrus had created. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Papyrus looking confused, and Frisk shivering.

Meanwhile, you gently lowered Undyne to her feet. She still looked winded, but was able to stand… albeit, shakily. She bent over and placed her hands on her knees as she caught her breath. You narrowed your eyes, a little worried. Your intention had been to contain, not to hurt. Seeing your concerned expression, Undyne waved you off.

"Don't worry about me… I'm good!" She stood up straight and bared her pointed teeth. "Damn… the hell was that?" You shrugged, your worry still not dispelled. You looked over your shoulder at the two-person audience.

"Papyrus… do you have anymore of that monster candy?" The skeleton leapt up from his seat.

"Of course!" He said as he bounded over to you, brandishing a piece of candy with a flourish. You briefly wondered where he kept all this candy; his armour didn't have pockets. With a little shake of your head, you took the monster food from him and handed it to Undyne.

"Ugh, I don't need your dumb candy!" She protested, but snatched it from you anyway. You watched carefully to make sure she popped it in her mouth.

"SIBLING! THAT WAS AMAZING!" Now that the tension was past, Papyrus smiled up at you, practically bouncing on his heels. "I am not really sure what happened, BUT YOU WON!"

"Mm." You grunted noncommittally, eyes fixed on Frisk as they approached. They didn't seem frightened, thankfully, though they were frowning a little. The kid knocked on Papyrus' armoured leg, which made a hollow clanking sound.

 **You and Undyne should spar now!** They signed insistently. Papyrus' chest puffed out.

"Nyeh heh heh! What an excellent idea!" All three of you glanced over at Undyne, who was looking much better. Her pride may have been wounded, but, after that candy, she seemed back to normal. She gave you all a wide grin.

"Ha! You really think you can beat me, punk?!" She challenged, with as much gusto as you'd come to expect from her.

"My sibling did!" Papyrus pointed out proudly.

"Yeah, well… Orion got lucky! It won't happen again!" You begged to differ, but didn't have the will to argue with her about it. Undyne materialized a spear in her left hand, and that was your cue to usher Frisk back to the hay bale seating.

 **What was that thing you did to Undyne?** They asked as soon as the two of you were alone. You suspected this was the whole reason they'd wanted Papyrus and Undyne to spar. Sneaky little bugger.

"Nothing you need to worry about." You answered vaguely. You didn't even have a name for what you'd done; it was just something that came to you naturally. It didn't bother you like it would've bothered your component parts. Your mind was already wandering to other things.

 **She looked like she was gonna fall down, but you didn't even touch her!** Frisk signed, more vigorously this time. A twinge of annoyance caused you to snap at them,

"I said don't worry about it, kid." That shut them up. They sat on their hands, and turned stiffly to watch Undyne and Papyrus fight it out. You huffed a short, frustrated sigh, and turned away.

You watched Undyne and Papyrus for a minute, waiting to see if you would break apart again now that the need for unity had passed. You didn't, though… not even when Undyne clipped Papyrus with an orange spear. You were sure Sans would've intervened if he could've, but you found that you trusted Undyne not to really hurt your brother. Sure enough, Papyrus seemed fine, and continued to spar with as much enthusiasm as before the hit.

When it became clear that you were going to be together for a while, you silently slipped away through a shortcut when Frisk wasn't looking. It took you to the entrance of Mettaton's hotel. You walked through the front door, ignoring the stares and whispers you received from other passersby.

Your two souls wanted you to think long and hard about splitting, but you really couldn't be bothered. It wasn't that you didn't care, necessarily… it just wasn't your problem. Probably, you'd inherited that impassiveness from Sans, but that didn't matter, either.

"I have more important things to do." You muttered under your breath as you walked right through the hotel and out the back door, straight to the Core.


	27. Soma

((A/N: It's occurred to me that, although I warned for disturbing content in this chapter over on AO3, that didn't transfer over to ff. So, if you're reading this now... this is your warning! The tag for "graphic violence" that I warned for in the description of this fic applies here.))

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.

The Core, itself, was a curious thing. The information Alphys had given your human component about it weeks earlier matched up with what your monster half already knew. In this timeline, at least, the Core was never made. It was found, as is, by monsters seeking to find a suitable place to settle in this underground prison they were all trapped in. Asgore and the others found the Core and, stupidly, built up a city nearby. Unlike the rest of the Underground, the area was warm, dry, and lit dimly by the lava around it. On paper, it seemed like as good a place to live as they were ever going to find. But, as Alphys had told you, the broken remains of the Core were dangerous. It could become unstable and explode again, as it so obviously had in the past, at the slightest provocation.

Ignorant of this, some monsters had figured out a way to utilize the endless energy being released by the smoldering remains of the Core. They had electricity, and were able to simulate a day/night cycle with a combination of the energy from the Core and some clever magic. So, really, who were you to scoff at the monsters' use of the dangerous, radioactive resource they'd been given? It was worth the risk, if only to keep people from going insane in the cold, dark Underground… even if they hadn't known it was risky to begin with.

But all of this was largely irrelevant to your interests. You didn't much care about what the monsters did with the Core in this timeline; what you cared about was how it had gotten here and, more importantly, what happened when it all went wrong. You would never be able to save Gaster without that information.

Because, really, that was what you cared about. More than splitting your souls, more than dying… you just wanted to finish this one thing. Your component parts had largely forgotten about Gaster, constantly putting off the search in favor of what they deemed to be more pressing matters. The human only went looking for entries when they wanted to shake the monster out of a dissociative episode, and the monster had been neck-deep in this mystery for so long that he had long since run out of fresh ideas. They both dragged their feet so much on this matter, that you wondered if they would ever solve it even once they were separated.

You needed to be the one to see this through, if for no other reason than to make sure it got done. Though you'd never met him in either of your lives, Gaster was important to you. You would persevere until you saw this to its end.

As soon as you entered the Core, you brought out your cell phone. You opened its dimensional box and laid out all of the entries you'd found up until this point, in order. So far, you had found entries 2-9, excluding 8. You read them all one by one, making sure you hadn't missed anything.

When read in order like this, Gaster's life became a tragic tale of abysmal failures. You were missing the very first entry, but the second led you to conclude that the scientist had built his blasters as weapons to be used in the war between humans and monsters. He seemed to think that this would've given them an edge in the war, had they been invented sooner. However, Gaster had entered the fray too late, and the blasters were not enough to save them.

He tried to remedy this by designing a time machine, which would bring him back to a time before the war when he could use his knowledge to build the blasters sooner. Gaster always seemed calm in his entries, but you knew the situation had to be desperate when a person's solution to a problem was "time travel." Astonishingly, he did manage to build a functional time machine, but there was a catch. The machine could only bring him back as far as the creation of the barrier, since this moment marked the beginning of the universe he was in. The time machine, for all its power, could not travel interdimensionally. This made it useless to Gaster; he'd failed again, and wasted years, possibly decades, of his life in the process.

With nothing else to do, Gaster made a half-hearted attempt to rebuild the time machine. He seemed to become disheartened, and switched his focus to writing the necromancy book you'd so heavily depended on to restore life to the human's body. Though his entries gave little away about his emotional state, you imagined he'd felt… lost. He seemed to think it was _his_ responsibility to free everyone from the Underground, though it was beyond you why he would think such a thing. You imagined him wallowing away in that house in Snowdin; a place which seemed to be tied inexorably to the skeleton monsters.

Of course, that was all conjecture. What you knew for sure was that Gaster eventually reached the conclusion that, if he couldn't travel through time, he'd just have to travel interdimensionally. The idea of the Core was born, but this project was too big for Gaster to keep to himself this time. You pictured him a lone wolf, what with how he seemed to loathe working in a team…

But then, this was as far as you'd gotten in the story. Entry 9 still didn't make much sense to you, so you figured you needed 8 in order to understand it. You hadn't forgotten about Entry 17, either. It frustrated you that you didn't remember exactly what it said; you had the nagging suspicion that there was something important about it. The fact that it was found in the game of Undertale was an oddity, in itself. All of the entries so far had been found in places that were important to Gaster… why would that particular entry be a hidden secret in the game?

You grunted, then gathered up all of the entries and put them back in your phone. You were here in the Core to find more entries. You were sure that, aside from numbers 1 and 8, the remaining entries would be somewhere in here. After all, it wasn't much of a leap to assume that the Core was the last project Gaster had worked on. In order to literally reshape the entire landscape of the Underground, its failure must've been enough to either kill him, or…

Well, you weren't sure. Interdimensional travel was not exactly something that you, or anyone, were very well-versed in. The catastrophic failure of the Core could've had any number of effects that you weren't qualified to predict. At the very least, it must've erased Gaster from everyone's memories, much in the same way that Sans was erased from the timeline after he and the human had reset the universe.

You allowed these thoughts to run through your head as you wandered into the labyrinthian hallways of the Core. This all looked completely different from how you remembered it in the game, which reaffirmed what Alphys had said about the rooms shifting and changing. What was more interesting was that the Core seemed to be a shortcut deadzone; no teleporting allowed. You'd never seen anything like that before… there were areas of the world with more shortcuts than others, but you'd never encountered a place as devoid of them as this. You wondered if it had always been that way, or if the failure of the Core had somehow destroyed all of the shortcuts in the area.

Whatever the explanation, it actually ended up working in your favor. You'd been wandering the Core fruitlessly for a while when, suddenly, you split. Your two halves were confused to find themselves in the belly of the ruined machine, and tried to leave. Of course, they knew _why_ they were there, as they remembered every thought you had, but that didn't mean they liked it. It unnerved them more than anything; that you could do something like this that neither of them had agreed to. The realization that they couldn't leave through a shortcut had especially frightened the monster, but the human had insisted that they simply retrace their steps until they reached the hotel once more. They tried, but you hadn't been paying any attention to where you'd been wandering when you were in control. As such, the two of them didn't know where they were, either. Besides, the rooms had probably shifted, anyway, making backtracking impossible. By the time the two of them had formed you again, you were just as lost as you'd been when you split.

Good. That was just the way you liked it. You had ample practice with being lost just from living in your own head; it was fitting that you would be lost in the physical world, too. In that way, the Core suited you.

This pattern repeated. You would wander, eventually split, and your two parts would frantically try to get back home. When they began to feel hopeless, you would form again. And again, and again…

Predictably, the monster was the first to give up completely. Whenever you split, he would simply slouch back in your mind, waiting to reform again. The human, however, just wouldn't stop. They kept trying to get out, coming up with a new strategy each time. It was somewhat frustrating, since you were sure that, if they would just give in, you wouldn't have to keep splitting up in the first place. But, at the same time, you felt a sense of fondness whenever you would reform and remember how they'd tried to get away this time. It was cute that they would keep trying in the face of certain failure.

Eventually, something good did come of this back-and-forth struggle. You were meandering through a long hallway lit only by the blue and orange lasers above when you spotted a sheet of looseleaf paper on the ground. You stooped down to pick it up, and read,

"ENTRY NUMBER TWELVE

THE ROOMS OF THE CORE  
HAVE BEGUN TO REARRANGE THEMSELVES  
A SIDE EFFECT OF APPROACHING INTERDIMENSIONAL FLUX  
IT IS NOT CONCERNING  
BUT  
MY ASSISTANTS SEEM UNNERVED BY IT  
ONE GOT LOST THE OTHER DAY

USELESS"

You hummed, carefully rereading it before storing the paper in your phone. Nothing terribly useful; of course the rooms of the Core rearranged themselves. You were experiencing it at that very moment. The only things that this confirmed were that Gaster continued to dislike his teammates, and that the rooms shifting around was not a side-effect of the Core's failure, but a property essential to its function.

Coincidentally, you felt you could relate to Gaster, here. If you were the scientist and your two halves were your teammates, then you were in a similar position right now. You thought that you had a bit more patience with your component parts than Gaster had with his assistants, though.

After finding Entry 12, you started to split up less and less. When you did split, it took less time for the human to concede. You did feel guilty for essentially breaking their spirit, but they'd get over it when this was all said and done. Finding Gaster was more important than sparing their feelings.

Before long, you found another piece of loose leaf, same as the last. It was resting, precariously, on the edge of a drop off leading into a pit of fire. Something big must have exploded there, and taken a chunk of the Core with it. You picked up the paper and read,

"ENTRY NUMBER FOURTEEN

ASGORE HAS PULLED MY FUNDING  
HE ALREADY HAS THREE HUMAN SOULS  
HE THINKS IT IS UNNECESSARY  
TO CONTINUE WITH THIS EXPERIMENT  
WHEN IT WOULD BE EASIER TO COLLECT SOULS

I DID NOT COME THIS FAR TO STOP NOW"

The wingdings was scrawled messily on this one, as opposed to the careful, precise symbols Gaster usually drew. You didn't blame him for wanting to finish what he'd started, especially after his previous failures. His entries were taking on a subtly desperate tone again, and you found yourself pitying Gaster more than ever.

Though you did find two entries in the Core, you had still only seen roughly half of them, assuming Entry 17 was the last. Having these two was more maddening than ever, considering neither of them gave you much insight into what had happened to Gaster to make him disappear. You were fully prepared to keep searching, however, as you rounded the corner of a long hallway, you caught sight of the elevator that marked the entrance to the Core.

Immediately, you split into two.

"Thank _god_." You sighed, hurrying past the elevator and into the hotel. "Sans? We're out!" Your partner stirred weakly in the back of your mind, on the precipice of dissociation.

 _They'll just drag us back in soon as they take control again._ You frowned, unable to argue with that. Instead, you took a shortcut, not caring that there were people around you who could plainly see you disappearing into thin air.

"I don't like this. They're doing shit that we didn't agree to. They attacked that human in town, then they did that weird thing to Undyne, and now this bullshit with keeping us trapped in the Core?" You growled as you marched through the lab, your shortcut having taken you to its storage room. Your wings twitched, agitated, and you rubbed your left hand over your skull. You hated being trapped anywhere… _hated_ it. And now you were being held prisoner in your own mind? No.

"We need to split, _now_. Please, Sans… it's only like, a day early." You glanced at the clock in the big bedroom as you passed through it, noticing that it was one in the morning. Nearly twelve hours since you left Undyne's house. "We know how to operate the DTEM, let's just do it." There was a moment of silence before Sans gave his verdict.

 _Yeah, I'm with you. Orion doesn't seem to give a shit, anyway._ His inner voice sounded a little stronger now. You could've jumped for joy… or maybe that was just the nervous energy that had built up in your bones.

"Okay, okay… we're doing this." You muttered, both to Sans and yourself, as you walked down the hallway leading to the examination room. The first step was to collect your body and bring it to the DTEM. Your magic thudded in your head as you approached the metal door, which was open only a crack. As soon as your palm touched it to push it open, you heard a voice on the other side.

"U-um, w-well… no, d-don't get up! Y-you're, um… hurt. You sh-shouldn't move..." You froze. That was Alphys, but who…?

"What's going on? Where's Sans?!"

You felt like the floor had dropped out from under you, plunging you into a cold sea of dread. That was your voice. Not the deep, gravelly tones of Orion, but your very human voice…

"Something went wrong… I need to talk to Sans!" Your voice was shrill. You were scared. There was a crash and the clatter of something metallic hitting the floor.

"P-please, don't panic!" Alphys sounded on the edge of hysteria herself. "Um, w-what's the last thing you r-remember?" A pause. On your side of the door, you held your breath, rooted to the ground.

"I… w-well… we were at the barrier, Sans and I… we were going to try to cross it. Sorry we didn't tell you, Alphys… we thought it'd be better if it was just between us. I didn't… well, we didn't expect it not to work. What happened?" You'd apologized, but you knew yourself. You didn't sound sorry; you were just saying whatever it took to get information. There was a long pause, this time.

"I d-don't think… I sh-shouldn't be the one to explain this t-to you…" Alphys trailed off nervously.

You knew what had happened - what Alphys was struggling to find the words to explain. You'd died, and Sans had absorbed your soul. The body had rotted away for months, until you'd decided that it needed to live again. It was just a tool, a vessel… it was never _your_ body, just _the_ body. It no longer contained your soul, the very essence of you.

You raised your right hand and pressed it against your chest. You, of all people, should've known that a body doesn't need a soul to live.

It was too much. You snapped, Sans gave, and Orion was formed again. Your eyes narrowed and, with renewed vigor, you slammed your left hand into the door.

"Orion!" Alphys gasped as the door flew open. Magic crackled and spit all around you, cold determination driving you to ignore the meek scientist. You only had eyes for the body, which was sitting up on the table. It must've pulled off its own respirator, and had taken the sheet off of its face and used it to cover its mostly naked body. Its head turned to look at you, wide-eyed, scared, and confused.

 _Soulless freak._ You thought to yourself with disgust and contempt. Out loud, you said nothing, but raised your taloned hand with a sneer.

With the kind of finesse that Sans alone could never have hoped to achieve, you focused all of your blue magic on just the head of the body. With the flick of your wrist, its head jerked sideways, breaking its neck with a loud _SNAP_. It fell to the table, dead once more.

You didn't wait to hear Alphys' reaction before turning and stepping into a shortcut.


	28. Idle Minds Are the Devil's Playthings

You didn't go far. Your shortcut took you just upstairs, to Alphys' room. You strode over to her desk and tore open one of the drawers; the one you knew contained her blueprints. Sure enough, the drawer was full of them. Without stopping to look at which ones were relevant to you, you scooped them all up into your arms and stepped through another shortcut.

This time, you were back at the hotel, your magic pounding in your bones despite your outwardly calm appearance. There weren't many people in the lobby at one in the morning, but those who were gave you even stranger looks than before. You hefted up your armful of blueprints, holding them securely and glaring at anyone who might've dared to ask you what you were doing.

No one asked.

Your bones rattled softly as you returned back to the Core. As soon as you were far enough in that you knew no one would follow you, you dropped the blueprints and knelt down on the floor. None of them were labeled, so you had to open them all in order to find the ones you needed. The warbling, crackling sounds of long sheets of paper being unrolled only heightened your already frayed nerves. You realized halfway through that you weren't actually paying any attention to what the blueprints were telling you, and had to force yourself to stop.

You sat back, your spine hitting the metal wall of the Core. Your breath came in harsh gasps as though you'd run a marathon.

"What am I doing?" You muttered to yourself, grinding your palm into your forehead just hard enough to hurt. You had no idea how to deal with what had just happened. This… the Core… was easier. You laughed in a way that some people might have thought was insane. You knew you were fucked in the head when dealing with Gaster's problems was easier than taking care of your own.

A part of your mind nagged at you not to do this. To just suck it up, go back to the lab, and face the consequences. But another, louder part of you really did not want to do that.

 _I wanted more time to find Gaster… well, now I have it._ You reasoned with yourself before slowly crawling back to the blueprints.

You looked over them with more care this time, and gently rolled up the ones that were useless to you. Many of them were plans for Mettaton's new body, or plans for the DTEM, or plans for modifying the DTEM to suit your own needs. You looked over the ones which had to do with the Core with more scrutiny. With Sans' knowledge, these blueprints were no longer meaningless jargon to you, but a complex and, frankly, beautiful map of the Core's inner workings. For hours, you sat there, pouring over them. Looking for just what exactly could have gone wrong to cause the Core to fail.

The answer was… quite a lot. The Core was incredibly complex and was built on the concepts which Gaster had previously explored with the time machine. There were many things that could've gone wrong to cause a catastrophic failure, from the input of an incorrect data point, to the shortage of a single wire. As you continued to muddle through the complicated science behind it, you grew more and more incredulous. Gaster built very few, if any, safety measures into the Core. There were no backups, emergency exits, or even alarms. With those factors working against him, Gaster had to have known it was possible, even _likely_ , that something would go wrong. It was, to put it briefly, sloppy work.

Why, though? Was it the lack of funding? The urgency to get it done as soon as possible?

Aside from that, reading the blueprints gave you some insight into how the Core generated enough energy to travel interdimensionally. It seemed that powering the Core was a two-step process; first, Gaster had used geothermal energy to get things started. But, when that wasn't enough, he'd started using energy from… somewhere else. This was, by and large, the most complicated part of the blueprints, and it took you several careful read throughs before you finally understood what was going on. It seemed that Gaster had found a way to drain energy from _shortcuts_ , the very same wrinkles in space that you used for travel. He didn't call them shortcuts, but "wormholes," and it didn't seem like he could see or use them as naturally as you could. He'd simply figured out that they were there, invisible, and used them to his advantage.

In a way, this was more impressive to you than if he _had_ been able to see the shortcuts. How did he figure out that they were there? Had Sans told Gaster about them when they'd worked together? But, if that was the case, why did Gaster call them something different? You would've given your right wing to see Gaster's private notes, or just to remember anything from that timeline.

At any rate, this explained why there were no shortcuts in the Core. The machine had drained them all dry before, or during, its inevitable failure.

As you moved on from the paper you'd been staring at, you noticed that the last few blueprints were written in wingdings, too. They didn't have anything to do with the Core, but the language caught your attention nonetheless. When you looked more closely, you saw that there were some notes written in English in the margins, too, and you couldn't resist taking a look.

It was all about souls. But not human souls, like you might've expected. Monster souls; specifically, what they were made of, and how to replicate them. You furrowed your brow as you read, confused. This had nothing to do with anything that you knew Gaster had created, but it was surely his writing. Someone must've taken interest in the subject matter, because the notes in English were clearly written by someone else. Someone who didn't know wingdings, because their notes consisted mainly of inferences they'd made from the pictures…

"Alphys." You said out loud once you realized. Now that it occurred to you, you did recognize that sloppy chicken scratch. Perhaps Alphys had found these blueprints and used them as the starting point for her own soul research.

Soul magic wasn't exactly your specialty, so these blueprints were even more confusing to you than those of the Core. Your frustration was forgotten, though, as soon as you found a note written in wingdings at the top right corner of the page;

"ENTRY NUMBER EIGHT

I HAVE A PLAN  
TO BUILD MY OWN ASSISTANTS  
THEY WILL BE MADE FROM MY OWN FLESH  
SO AS TO INSURE THEIR INTELLIGENCE

I SUPPOSE  
THIS WOULD MAKE THEM MY CHILDREN  
IN A SENSE

ASGORE HAS TWO CHILDREN  
THEY SEEM TO TAKE CARE OF EACH OTHER  
PERHAPS I SHOULD MAKE TWO

I JUST CANNOT STAND ANOTHER MOMENT WITH THESE FOOLS"

Your magic pumped wildly through your bones as you read and reread the entry. This was the missing piece you'd sought after ever since Frisk had led you to number 9.

Finally, _finally_ , there was confirmation that Gaster was your father. Or, well, your monster half's father. Because who else could he be talking about, other than Sans and Papyrus? "Made from my own flesh"... what, exactly, did that mean? As a skeleton, Gaster didn't have flesh, technically speaking. It was not something you usually thought about, but how _did_ skeletons reproduce? As a skeleton yourself, you should've probably known that already, but it had never interested Sans.

And then, there was the comparison to Asgore's kids. Had Sans and Papyrus really been modeled after Chara and Asriel? This, plus the next chronological entry, seemed to suggest that. You knew that the whole tragic situation between those two kids occurred shortly before Sans' memory began, so perhaps you should've made the connection earlier. But Sans and Papyrus hadn't turned out anything like those two…

So why were you so unnerved?

Whatever. Your monster half and your brother must be more like Gaster than anyone, seeing how he was their sole parent. They had to have received all of their inborn traits from him. Plus, Gaster's plan had been to have his sons working beside him. Sans and Papyrus must've spent a lot of time with him, if that was the case. Though, it did raise the question of why your brother wasn't in any of those old photographs of Gaster's… perhaps those family photos had just been lost to time.

After sitting on the floor for an indeterminant amount of time while you sifted through blueprints, your bones were beginning to ache. You gave up on trying to decipher the rest of the soul blueprints; you had little hope of ever understanding them fully, and you now knew what they were for, anyway. You didn't need to know the gritty details. You put the one containing the new entry into your dimensional box but, regretfully, you couldn't save all of them in the same way. There was simply not enough room in your phone if you wanted to leave space for entries you still had yet to find.

You scooped up the blueprints which had to do with the layout of the Core, but left the rest behind. They were too bulky to carry in your arms while you explored, and, if you took them with you, you were afraid you would accidentally set them on fire by way of lasers. You would just have to come looking for them again when this was all over, if you wanted to return them to Alphys.

Thus began an endless quest to find the remaining entries. You started out with a method; using the blueprints to more effectively navigate the Core. At first, it was an effective strategy. You found Entry 13 only because you identified the room it was in as being particularly important to the function of the Core, and had spent extra time searching it. You found the piece of paper folded up in a tiny triangle, wedged in between two lasers.

After this, however, the blueprints became less and less useful. The more time you spent in the Core, the less sense it made to you. You were finding rooms which weren't even on the blueprints at all, much less in the correct location. It seemed like the Core was constructing its own rooms, or combining rooms to form odd, non-functioning amalgamations. Eventually, you grew tired of dragging the blueprints around, and left them behind in a relatively safe, brightly lit room. You knew you had only a slim chance of ever seeing them again, but they were rather useless now, anyway. Anything that didn't have an entry written on it was of little concern to you.

You were in the Core for so long that you were forced to stop and sleep several times. Despite this, you never grew hungry or thirsty; physical needs became meaningless this deep into the Core. The thought crossed your mind that you could very well be doomed to wander these halls forever, unable to die unless you chose to end yourself with a laser or in a pit of fire.

It didn't bother you as much as it probably should have. Your two halves would no doubt find it terrifying to be in this situation, but, luckily, they never appeared. It was radio silence in your head, with nothing to fill it aside from your own thoughts. And you were perfectly content with being lost in the fascinating ruins of this machine. Every wire and square of tile had been designed by Gaster, and you never felt closer to him than you did now. As illogical as it may sound given the machine's failure, you trusted this place to take care of you.

Sure enough, your trust had been well-placed. Not only did you eventually find entries 11 and 16, but the Core spit you back out at its entrance right after you'd found the last one. You were still missing numbers 1, 10, and 15, but you were starting to think that they may not be in the Core. It wasn't logical, but you felt like the fact that you'd come across the exit right after finding Entry 16 was no coincidence. You hesitated to call it a sign, which would imply that the Core itself was some kind of higher power... but something had to have been going on, one way or another.

Before you left the Core, you took out the three entries you'd found and read them over again. You felt like you were waking up from a dream, and had to remind yourself of what the journal entries said;

"ENTRY NUMBER ELEVEN

THE CORE IS BECOMING MORE DANGEROUS  
EVERY DAY IT GETS HOTTER  
AND THE WORMHOLES TETHERING IT TO THE PHYSICAL REALM  
HAVE BEGUN TO DISAPPEAR

ASGORE HAS ASKED ME FOR A REPORT  
ON WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF IT WERE TO FAIL

TRUTHFULLY  
I DO NOT KNOW  
AND I DO NOT INTEND TO FIND OUT"

Right. That one didn't tell you much of anything that you hadn't already figured out from the blueprints. Gaster must have been pretty confident in himself if he thought failure was so unlikely that he hadn't installed any safety measures. Rather foolish, in retrospect.

You moved on to the shortest entry you'd found yet;

"ENTRY NUMBER THIRTEEN

I HAVE FIRED ALL OF MY STAFF  
MOST OF THEM HAVE ALREADY QUIT ANYWAY  
I DO NOT NEED THEM"

You thought you knew, now, why Asgore had pulled Gaster's funding. You doubted he'd taken it very well when Gaster dismissed all of the people the King had assigned to him.

You wondered, though… did Sans and Papyrus count as "staff"? Or had they still worked for Gaster until the bitter end? As far as you knew from the entries you had, Gaster made no mention of either of his sons after their creation, so you were left to wonder.

Lastly, your gaze slid to what you were convinced was the last entry you were ever going to find in the Core;

"ENTRY NUMBER SIXTEEN

INTERDIMENSIONAL FLUX HAS BEEN REACHED  
PHOTON READINGS MAXIMUM  
IT IS DONE

I WILL USE MYSELF AS A TEST SUBJECT  
BUT I BELIEVE I HAVE FINALLY FREED US ALL"

Your chest ached at Gaster's final words. The Core had been functioning as intended right up until the final moment of truth. Your father thought he'd figured it out, when the only thing he'd succeeded in was erasing himself from existence. If he was still alive and sentient, you could only imagine how that last-minute failure haunted him.

Something about that entry struck a chord in your mind. It was painfully familiar, and you were sure it had something to do with the forgotten Entry 17. It annoyed you more than ever that you couldn't remember it and, to make matters worse, you had no more leads. While the entries you'd found were certainly interesting, they did not lead you to Gaster. You'd gained nothing of substance from this endeavor.

You sighed heavily before storing the entries back in your phone where they belonged. With that done, you continued forward, unsure how to continue.

The sight of Mettaton's hotel was jarring after having been lost in the Core for so long. You had no idea what day or time it was, aside from that it was as dark as when you'd entered the labyrinth. There was practically nobody in the hotel; there wasn't even a receptionist at the front desk. You hesitated in the lobby, then walked over to the burger emporium.

"Welcome to MTT-Brand Burger Emporium, home of the Glamburger. Sparkle up your…" Burgerpants' eyes appeared glazed-over, not truly seeing who was standing in front of him until he was almost through with his standard welcome speech. His eyes widened before he raised one brow in suspicion. "Hey, I know you… you were on the field trip, right?" Before you could speak, he snapped his fingers in realization. "Yeah, yeah… and you're that weirdo who walked through here with all those papers last week. I knew I recognized you from somewhere!"

"Yes." You replied simply. Burgerpants didn't seem deterred by your shortness of tone.

"Man, you really messed up that one human. That was WILD. I am never going on one of those trips again, let me tell you. I'll work the night shift everyday before I agree to THAT again!" You leaned on the counter, arms crossed, and tapped one talon on its surface as you listened to his mundane rambling. You still felt like you were in the twilight zone after that adventure through the Core, which had, apparently, been a week long. You were skeptical of that, since it sure hadn't felt like _that_ much time had passed. "Mostly because of those, uh, helicopter things. And the humans were kinda freaky when they were all grouped together like that, too. Can you believe how they all look exactly the same? It's kinda creepy. Hey, are you okay, buddy?" He must've noticed you'd zoned out, and was looking at you with an odd expression.

"What time is it?" You asked in a quiet murmur. You were well aware that you were acting strangely, but just didn't care enough to put on a mask.

"Uh, it's like… two in the morning. Can you believe Mettaton's making me work this late? Even the receptionist got to go home. I think it's punishment for something, but I can't figure out what… hey, where're you going?" You walked out of the shop unceremoniously, too lost in your own mind to spare Burgerpants any more than a passing thought.

You had… an idea. It was an objectively bad idea, if you were to ask your two halves. But they'd screwed things up so much in the past, so what did they know? And, if you were starting to consider it, then at least one of them had to be okay with it too... right?

You were going to start up the game again. Just thinking it made you taste bile in the back of your nonexistent throat, but how else were you ever going to read Entry 17? There was no trace of the game left on the internet; no human remembered its existence, let alone the existence of a secret message in the game's code. You were resigned to the fact that you weren't about to suddenly have an epiphany and remember what the entry said. But maybe, if you could just find this _one_ piece of the puzzle, you would finally be able to see the full picture. There were a few other entries you had yet to find, but this was the only one whose location you knew. And it was looking like 17 really was the last one… it had to be important.

 _I won't have to reset or reload anything… it's just a matter of changing the room number in the game files._ You reasoned with yourself when, really, you'd already made up your mind. You took a few, rapid shortcuts until you were in your house.

It was empty, silent, and dark, as you would expect it to be at two in the morning. There was no one else in the house; you knew this, and yet you still tried to stay as quiet as possible. You moved from the spare room, to the living room, to your room... your bare, bony feet clicking softly on the hardwood floor as you went. You felt an unexpected fondness as your gaze swept over the dark bedroom. Despite your unwillingness to call this place "home" at first, it had become just that. You were glad to be back, if only for a moment.

The bottom dresser drawer creaked as you opened it, revealing nothing but your laptop inside. You removed it with care bordering on reverence. The plastic cover on your bed made an obnoxious crinkling sound as you sat on it. You took a deep breath before flicking the computer open, flooding the room with bright, artificial light.

You got right down to business and went straight for the Undertale files. Using the knowledge you'd inherited from your human half, you found what you were looking for. There were two files that you had to change; and file 0. You opened up the .ini file and…

Well, there was one crucial piece of information you were missing. What was the room number? You remembered that it was in the 200's, but beyond that, you had no clue. You let out a long-suffering sigh and started guessing, starting from room 201.

Your first guess took you to the Core. You figured that was far too low, and upped the anty to 270. That room, as it turned out, didn't even exist in the game. Instead, you got an image of a dancing dog and some upbeat music that was wildly inappropriate for the somber mood of the situation you were in. You snorted, and picked a lower guess.

Altering the game files grew less and less scary the more you did it. Nothing changed in real life as far as you could tell. After all, all you were doing was making guesses and opening the game to take a peek at what room you showed up in. There was no harm in that… at least, none that you could conceive.

Eventually, after guessing incorrectly a few times and ending up in various rooms in the true lab, you got it right. Lucky number 264 took you to a black screen, where shaky, wingdings font began to show up on screen accompanied by an eerie sound;

"ENTRY NUMBER SEVENTEEN

DARK DARKER YET DARKER  
THE DARKNESS KEEPS GROWING  
THE SHADOWS CUTTING DEEPER  
PHOTON READINGS NEGATIVE  
THIS NEXT EXPERIMENT  
SEEMS  
VERY  
VERY  
INTERESTING

WHAT DO YOU TWO THINK?"

The game suddenly closed itself, and you were left staring at your desktop image. "This next experiment"... this entry was found in the game. Did Gaster have something to do with…?

" _What do you two think?"_

You let out a full-body shudder as your breath caught in your throat. You knew… you _knew_ what you had to do to talk to Gaster. It was so obvious, you were stunned that you hadn't thought of it before. Or, maybe you had, but your strong aversion to changing the files of the game had kept the thought from ever even reaching the surface.

You were more frustrated than ever with how slow your claws were at operating a trackpad as you opened up the game's files again. With shaky hands, you set the "fun" value to 66.

There was no way you were going to have this interaction through the game. You were going to go there… in person.

You saved the file at least five times before closing your laptop, shooting off of the bed with far more nervous energy than you knew what to do with. If everything worked like you thought it did, and what happened in the game still determined what happened in the Underground… then there should be a grey door waiting for you in Waterfall.

" _What do you two think?"_

You were ready.


	29. The Man Behind the Curtain

You didn't even bother putting your laptop away. A few, quick shortcuts was all it took to reach Waterfall.

You ended up right on top of the place where you used to have your prank telescope set up. The area was bare now, which was a shame. Not because the telescope had been any good; truthfully, the thing was a piece of junk. Your monster half hadn't been able to afford a functioning telescope, and he hadn't the motivation to fix up the broken one he'd found in the garbage piles. But it had been a good joke, and you would've liked to have seen it.

You blinked and looked up, where you didn't need a telescope to see a few, scattered jewels glittering on the ceiling. Taking a deep, stuttering breath, you stepped forward, away from Gerson's shop behind you. It was a good thing it was so late, or else this area would've been crawling with monsters.

The door you were looking for didn't come into view right away. Your eyes were glued to the right-hand wall of the cave, but there was nothing there. Had you done something wrong? You kept walking, just in case it wasn't exactly where you thought you remembered it being.

As you walked, you noticed something odd happening to your surroundings. The hallway you were in seemed to stretch in size; by all rights, you should've reached the end of it by now, but you were not even halfway through. A static buzz irritated your ears and made your head feel fuzzy. Just as it was starting to hurt, something snapped, and the buzzing suddenly disappeared. When you looked to your right, there was the grey door, looking distinctly out of place in the middle of the jagged, rocky wall.

Eagerly, you lunged for the door, fumbling with the handle for a moment with your right hand before switching to your left. It opened without fanfare, and you were left staring into… nothing. The space in front of you was so black that it looked like a solid wall. Hesitantly, you stuck your hand in it. Your fingers passed into the space harmlessly, but, oddly, the lighting on your hand was unchanged from the rest of your body. The blackness of the space did not engulf you in shadow like regular darkness would, nor did the light from Waterfall make any dent in it. It gave you a prickly feeling of wrongness. Even more suspicious was the fact that you couldn't see Gaster - or anything, for that matter.

With little else to lose, you stepped through the doorway. The feeling of passing into the blackness was only comparable to one thing; the experience of crossing the barrier, back when it had still stood and your body was only newly formed. Just like back then, you felt a stutter in your magic, followed by a jolt of electricity through your souls.

As soon as you were inside, the environment changed dramatically. There was suddenly a white floor underneath you, and dim lighting above. You couldn't see more than a few meters in front of you; if you tried to focus on something further away, everything would go blurry and your eyes would automatically slide somewhere else. Even creepier was the fact that there were no shortcuts here, just like the Core. It made you feel trapped. You turned to make sure your way out was still available, and just caught a glimpse of the same utter blackness before the door swung shut of its own accord.

"Ah, finally." You spun around, wide-eyed. Out of the blurry background, a shape was slowly coming into focus. It was black and vaguely human-shaped. A pristine, white skull took form, with one side of it sagging grotesquely. That side seemed frozen in a creepy, dripping smile. You raised one hand to subconsciously touch your own paralyzed side of your mouth. In addition, deep, painful-looking cracks marred the figure's face. He appeared to be wearing a black coat, but it was difficult to tell when everything below his shoulders was a shapeless mass. Much like the darkness beyond the door, you couldn't tell if it was solid or gaseous.

"I was beginning to think you would never come. That, in your foolish refusal to utilize the resources at hand, you would never succeed. But... here you are." Despite his mouth not moving at all, he spoke in a clear, but warbling voice.

"Gaster?" You gasped, your spine straightening as you leaned unconsciously toward him. "I… I've been searching for you for so long…" Ever since you moved into that house in Snowdin. Ever since finding that basement which seemed inexplicably immune to resets… you'd finally done it. He looked… well, a bit different from the pictures, but there was no doubt in your mind that it was him.

"Yes, I suppose so. A fruitless effort, I must say." You blinked slowly, in a daze. The unsubstantial nature of this place was making you dizzy.

"W-what? But I found you!" You cried out and took a step toward him, to which he didn't react.

"True. But, presumably, you came to… what is it? 'Help' me?" He chuckled in a way that reminded you a little of Sans' laugh, though perhaps you were reading too much into it. Gaster's distorted grin grew wider. "You haven't changed, Sans. So eager to please." You cocked your head and furrowed your brow. Not only did that not sound like the monster you knew, but-

"I'm not Sans." You spoke before really thinking it through. Perhaps it would've been better to let Gaster keep thinking he was talking to his son. Regardless, he misinterpreted your statement, and his smile grew impossibly wider.

"Ah, so I am speaking to the human, then?" You were unsure how to explain, and Gaster took your silence as affirmation. "Interesting. You and I are of no relation, so why, then, would you risk your life to see me?"

"I…" You were reeling. This was not at all how you imagined this going. "I have some… questions?" It came out as more of a question than a statement, which seemed to amuse Gaster.

"Yes, I suppose you would. I am, generally, of an unfavorable opinion when it comes to humanity. To put it bluntly, I loathe your species." He sneered, his face unexpectedly expressive given its warped, slightly gooey appearance. "But you, in particular, have played your part rather marvelously thus far... so I will endure your questions." You blinked. You had _so many_ questions… where could you possibly begin? The first thing out of your mouth ended up being the most pressing concern,

"You… why do you think I can't help you? The door's right there!" You whipped around and, sure enough, the grey door was still behind you. You pointed at it as you turned back to Gaster. "Just walk right through!" He laughed again, his malformed shoulders shaking with mirth.

"If only it were so simple. If I were to walk through that portal right this moment, I would dissolve to mere dust in an instant." Your arm sagged and slowly lowered back to your side as you fixed him with a curious expression. He continued, "I know you have been collecting my journal entries… I can sense them in your pocket. You must know, then, about the… fatal error which led me to this predicament." His face scrunched up, as though he wasn't happy with his own word choice. "To put it in simple terms, the Core imploded on itself during my first test of interdimensional travel. If I could run diagnostics on it now, I would easily be able to identify what went wrong. But that is not an option at the moment." His pupils, which were pinpricks of light just like yours, shifted to the left in an expression of irritation. "What is important is that the massive explosion that followed sent parts of my being flying randomly in all dimensions. Most of what I would call 'myself' ended up here, but parts… like those journal entries you've been coveting… went elsewhere. As it stands, I cannot leave this place without my very molecules falling apart. There is simply not enough of me to keep myself together out in the mortal plane."

You were trying to keep up with what he was saying, but it was hard when the blurry, amorphous surroundings were continuing to make you nauseous. You thought you got the gist, though; Gaster couldn't leave whatever void-space the two of you were in. You must've been thinking about this for too long, because he interrupted your thoughts,

"Was this your only question? Because I must say, this conversation has been disappointingly brief if that is the case."

"N-no!" You yelled, desperate for him not to go away or kick you out. "The game! What do you know about Undertale?" The final entry was on your mind, and you couldn't possibly leave not knowing what Gaster's role was in all of this.

"Less than you, I would presume." When he caught sight of your nonplussed expression, he continued, "Ah, yes… I do forget sometimes that you do not know all that I do. When left alone for so long with no one to talk to, one does start to think of their own knowledge as being universal." The blackness that made up his body undulated uncomfortably. "That which you call a 'game' is a conduit through which the surface dimension may interact with the Underground. Whether that connection was left there on purpose by the humans who sealed us away, or if it was an unintended side-effect of creating a pocket universe, I do not know. I discovered it during my many years alone in this void-space between dimensions. I merely made it… accessible to humans on the surface. I do seem to have a way with your human technology, if I do say so myself." He grinned, the size of his mouth practically splitting his skull in half. "What you call the 'internet' is quite simple for the pieces of me on the surface to interact with. It really was impeccable timing; that I happened to discover this connection during a time when your technology is primitive enough for me to shape to my will, but advanced enough to comprehend the connection."

Your magic pumped in your bones. Thankfully, things around you were starting to become a little clearer. Gaster was still disturbingly amorphous, but his blurry surroundings weren't making your head pound as much as before. You couldn't tell if that was just because you were getting used to it, or if the environment was slowly coming into focus around you.

"So… you created Undertale?" Gaster snorted and shook his head.

"No, no… I merely made it available for you to access. Although that, in itself, was no small task."

"But, why me?" You asked, a desperate edge to your voice. "Why'd you give the game to _me_?"

"I didn't." Gaster said, almost lazily, as though he were getting bored of the conversation. "Believe you me, if I could have, I would have simply taken care of it myself. I had wanted to use the connection to break the barrier, and finish my life's work... on my own terms. But, for whatever reason, the connection would not let me through. Be it because I am a monster, or because I am scattered through space and time… take your pick. The connection would not allow me to interact with the Underground, and so I had to turn it over to the humans in the hopes that someone would pick it up and do what needed to be done." Briefly, you remembered what would happen if you input Gaster's name in the beginning of the game. It made sense, now.

"An unexpectedly high number of humans found it and fooled around with it," He continued, his body swirling slowly and creeping a little closer to you, "Your species does seem to be driven by some sort of morbid curiosity. But, only one human could be allowed to have the true copy, else we would be faced with a horrendous mess of branching timelines and parallel universes. To accomplish this, I manipulated the game interface so that only the first person to correctly guess the fallen human's name would get the real connection to the Underground," His smile twisted, "It was entirely random that you happened to be that person. There is nothing special about you."

Your souls lurched at that news. The only reason you were here right now was because your human half had uncreatively named the first fallen human after the word "character." You were not hand-picked by some higher power… it wasn't fate, or destiny that brought you here. There really _was_ nothing special about you.

While you were frozen in place, you barely heard Gaster still talking, "That is not to say you did not fulfill your purpose. There was a time when I thought for sure your insatiable curiosity would ruin it. It was maddening, to watch you fumble around, exploring every possible outcome without any heed for the people whose lives you were toying with. And then, when you seemed to bore of it… well, I must admit, I would never have guessed it would be the demon child who ended up nudging you in the right direction," His shoulders came up and down in a shrug, "All in all, the outcome could have been much worse, so I suppose you did as good a job as any."

"You… you could've _warned me_!" Your bones rattled and you clenched your fists. "If I'd known I had the _real_ copy, I wouldn't have… I would've _never_ -"

"Are you sure about that?" Gaster mused, and your jaw snapped shut. "Power can turn the most compassionate human into a demon… your species is so easily corruptible. And, besides, would you have believed the program if it told you the truth?" He gave you a second to think about it. While you still were stubbornly sure that your human half wouldn't have hurt anyone if they'd known, you had to admit that they probably would've scoffed if the game had claimed to be real.

To Gaster, your silence spoke for itself. "Truly, my dear, you should count your blessings. It is a stroke of luck that we succeeded in breaking the barrier at all, and even more so that you survived your brief time in the Underground. Well…" He looked you over with a cruel smile, "'Survive' being a point of contention, I suppose."

Your eyes darted around, your surroundings beginning to distract you again. It appeared that the area was, indeed, coming into clearer focus the longer you stayed here, but it was even more unnerving now than it was when everything was blurry. You could just see the crisp, gray walls to your right and left, and could barely make out what looked like doorways spaced evenly on both walls down the length of the hallway you were in. There was some kind of glowing, sea green light emanating from each doorway, but you still couldn't quite tell what it was. Your instinct told you that you didn't want to find out.

"I… we should get out of here… how can I help you?" You focused back on Gaster, determined not to leave him behind.

"I have already told you, you cannot help. Do not make me repeat myself." You shook your head adamantly.

"No… there's got to be a way. I won't let you rot here forever." _I've come too far to give up on you now._ You kept the last part to yourself, taking a step forward with your hand half extended toward your father.

"Oh, I don't intend to." Gaster grinned, his malformed eye twitching a little. "I do have a plan to escape this hellish place, but I have no need for anyone's help. The plan is already well underway… in fact, it is the only reason I am able to stand here and have a conversation with you. Had you found me months earlier, this place would have been a black void, and I would not have been able to appear to you like this." Your arm fell back to your side.

"So… what, then? You want me to just… leave?" You didn't think you could. All of that work to find him, and he was just going to dismiss you like this? You _wanted_ to help… why wouldn't he let you? Surely you could contribute _something_.

"Well, not exactly." Gaster inched toward you, floating along on the illusionary ground until you were face to face. He seemed to be able to raise himself off the ground until he was the same height as you. "I may not need your aid, but I must admit, I find your situation to be… incredibly fascinating." He narrowed his eyes as he studied you. Despite yourself, you took an involuntary step back. He didn't seem to mind, and didn't pursue you further. He relaxed back to his normal height. "I have a proposition for you. I understand that you would rather be back in your own body, rather than stuck with my creation for all eternity." The way he spoke about Sans made you frown, but you said nothing. "Allow me to study your soul and, when I am finished, I will return you to your body, as good as new." The offer immediately gave you a bad feeling, so you quickly refused in a cold tone,

"No, thanks. I've already got that covered; Papyrus and my other friends are helping me with that." Gaster let out a loud laugh, which made you flinch.

"Ha! That idiot? He knows nothing of raising the dead." Your breath caught, and you thought you saw some dark shapes in the blurry background shifting restlessly. "He is a fool… blundering around, pretending that he knows what he's doing. I am a master of necromancy and healing. I can bring you back the _right_ way, even better than you were before your untimely death," He fixed you with an eager, almost hungry look, "Your physical ailments? They are easily fixed. Do not make the mistake of relying on a novice who learned all he knows from a book."

"I don't need to be fixed!" You snapped back hotly, "And Papyrus is your son… how could you say that about him?! You're the one who _wrote_ that book… aren't you proud of him for learning so much from it?!"

"Proud? I would think not," Gaster sneered, "To call Sans and Papyrus my sons would be a stretch. They are mere clones, with some deliberate variation to avoid the obvious moral quandaries. My left and right hands, if you will." Out of his black, gooey body emerged two appendages. As you watched with morbid fascination, they solidified to form arms and stark, white hands. He raised one to show you the hole in his palm, like stigmata. "When it comes to your own life, I would strongly advise you not to rely on a mere copy of the original. Let me study you. Then, when I am finished, I will bring you back, better than ever."

You took another step back, your spine nearly touching the grey door, and clicked your jaw. You fixed Gaster with a hard look and said, tersely,

"No. I trust Papyrus." It was true. No matter what Gaster thought of him, you would trust your brother with your life, every time. Glitchy, warbled laughter filled the void.

"And who, might I ask, is really saying that? The human… or the monster?" You felt a spark of determination in your soul.

"Orion."

...

There was a pause. You thought you'd caught Gaster off guard, until he shook his head in an almost fond manner.

"You see? Interesting. But, fine… I can see you are too stubborn to accept my generous offer. If that is the case, then I have no use for you. Leave me." With that, the scientist turned away, dismissing you with a flick of his hand.

You were frozen in place. You spent all this time trying to rescue him, thinking he was some kind of… some kind of _father_ to you, and he just…

How could he _do_ this?! He insulted you… he insulted _Papyrus_... he was such a… a _fucking jackass_!

A wild, enraged fire burned in your chest. Without any finesse or prior thought, you flung a barrage of bones at Gaster when his back was turned. Your hand flew out, sending the weapons careening toward him at the highest speed you could muster. But they simply flew right through him, passing through his black, vaporous body harmlessly.

He turned slowly, his mouth frozen in a tense smile. "Really, now? I do not know what you expected of me. _You_ were the one who sought me out; I never asked for you to find me. Do not throw your bones at me when you were the one who set yourself up for disappointment." You shook with raw anger. Your eyes burned, though you weren't sure if it was from unshed tears or magic. "Assistants," he'd called you in his entry…

"You _used_ me… and Pap. You… you never loved us, did you?" God, how could you be so _stupid_? Gaster gave you an incredulous look.

"I have no need for such asinine questions. Leave. Now." He turned his back on you again and began to float away, nearly disappearing in the blurry surroundings.

Righteous fury coursed through your bones. _Both_ of your eyes burned, and it felt like your skull was aflame. The whole room… hallway… _wherever_ you were was engulfed in bright blue light. Your magic swirled around you, making your robe billow despite the fact that there was no wind in the void. In the space where Gaster used to stand, you concentrated that magic into a single, giant blaster. With a force far greater than what your monster half could've handled alone, you fired the Gaster Blaster straight at its creator.

Bright, white light blinded you for a good five seconds. The sound alone, like a jet plane right next to your ear, would've deafened any human in an instant. When it was finally finished firing, and with the massive weapon completely blocking your view of your adversary, you had no idea if you'd struck him down or not. You waved the dog skull away, but everything in the background was still too blurry to see. You were forced to take several steps forward until you were able to see Gaster, unharmed and staring at you with a blank expression.

"You cannot hurt me, you bumbling child. I do not have enough physicality to be killed. Your only option is to leave, or else we may have to stand here and stare at each other for an eternity." His dry, almost-humor only sparked your anger again. Your magic gathered around you once more, too great to be contained within your body. You huffed, your breathing labored from the magical exertion and the pain in your eye sockets.

You had _so much power_ , you were certain you could destroy Gaster… if you only knew how. You tried to envelope him in your magic, like you had done to Undyne what seemed like a lifetime ago. But he seemed not to even notice the angry, swirling tornado of energy around him. He simply floated through the cocoon like it was nothing, approaching you with his hands behind his back.

"As entertaining as option two sounds, I have business to attend to. I cannot cater to your infantile tantrum any longer." Suddenly, he was right in front of you, his head raised to your height again. You were too furious to be startled this time. The vivid, blue light from your eyes cast an eery glow over his misshapen face. "I am certain we will meet again, but, until such time… goodbye, Orion."

You felt a skeletal hand on your sternum, and flinched when it drew back and elicited three, telltale clicks. Your soul burst from your chest and hovered uncomfortably close to Gaster. The sight of it made even your immensely powerful display of magic splutter and die.

Your soul looked radically different from how you remembered it. Instead of being a shade of purple in the middle with a white outer covering, the two colors had blended together into a raging storm. Purple and white swirled around each other, mixing freely. As it emerged from your body, it let out a pulse of pure energy that made even Gaster stumble back.

You were so caught off guard that you didn't realize what he was doing until your mutated soul was encase in a glowing blue light. Before you could gather your magic again, you felt yourself being lifted off of your feet. You looked up at Gaster's twisted smile one last time before, with a flick of his wrist, he sent you flying backwards.

You careened down the hallway, crashed through the grey door, and slammed _hard_ into the stone wall behind it. The back of your skull cracked sharply against the rock, and your vision went black.


	30. Sins of the Father

((A/N: I forgot something VERY important in the last chapter, but I didn't realize it until a few days after posting. I've edited it now, but if you read the chapter before Friday, you probably missed it.

If you don't want to go back and re-read, the thing I forgot to mention was that the void-space that Gaster is trapped in doesn't have any shortcuts... just like the Core. A small detail, but an important one!))

.

.

You awoke to the sound of a familiar voice.

"Hey there, kiddo… you comin' to?" The high-pitched ringing in your head nearly drowned out the voice, and you still hadn't comprehended what it said before you felt a hand on your shoulder. Instinctively, you growled and batted the hand away.

"Don' touch me…" Your eyes still stung something terrible, and you could only open them a crack. You were leaning against some kind of wall, and tried to sit up straight. Bad idea.

The movement dislodged something behind your head, and it fell away to tumble to the floor. You let out a gasping cry of pain, your left hand flying to the back of your skull. Something crumpled under your hand.

"Woah, geez… take it easy, would ya? I'm tryin' to help." You didn't have much choice other than to trust the voice, too stunned to do anything else. An arm came around your shoulders to support your weight. A rough-skinned hand carefully grasped your wrist and pulled your hand away from your head. You shivered; the open air on your wound felt very wrong. A low, astonished whistle broke the silence.

"Yikes. The hell happened to ya, kid? With a hole like that in the back o' your melon, it's a dang miracle ya ain't dusted already." The fog in your mind cleared enough that you were at least starting to remember where you were. Waterfall… the door… Gaster...

"Gerson?" You asked, blearily.

"The one an' only. Now why don't ya come with me… you can set up in my shop while I go find a healer. Never was much of one myself… hey, what're you-!" You pushed away from Gerson and used the wall behind you to leverage yourself up onto your feet. You brought your hand back up to cradle the back of your head, covering the hole in your skull with your phalanges. Your eye sockets had cooled down, so you were able to open them all the way.

Unheeding of the old turtle's continued scolding, you stumbled over to the other side of the hallway. The door should've been _right there_ , but it was gone. You placed your taloned hand on the stone.

"Really, now! Ya shouldn't be moving, you big buffoon! Come with me, I'll getcha fixed right up-" You dragged your knife-like talons down the stone wall, creating an ear-piercing, nails-on-chalkboard sound. It cut Gerson off abruptly.

"Leave. Me. Alone."

You growled, your eyes going dark while you stared at the wall. You allowed your left hand to fall from your head slowly. Already, the wound was beginning to hurt less. By all rights, it should've been fatal, but you didn't feel like you were dying.

Not in the traditional sense of the word, anyway.

"...Sorry, bucko. Can't do that." Gerson made to grab your arm again, but you jerked away before he could get ahold of you. Your eyes flared up again but, before you could do something you'd regret later, you channeled all of that frustration into opening the nearby shortcuts. Without a moment to lose, you side-stepped into one and disappeared from Gerson's sight.

Conveniently, the shortcut took you right where you wanted to be; next to where the barrier used to stand. It took another couple of shortcuts before you reached your safe place. Not your house in the camp, but the barn which you'd left abandoned months ago.

It was stupid to go back there, you knew that. You'd told the humans where the place was; it was entirely possible that they were watching it to make sure you weren't going to come back. But it was the only place you knew of where you could be absolutely sure you wouldn't run into any of your friends.

You just couldn't trust yourself around them right now.

With trembling hands, you forced open the sliding front door. It slammed open with more force than you'd intended, and you didn't bother closing it before stumbling inside. The light of the full moon shone eerily bright through the many holes in the ceiling, not that you needed much light to see. You paced around on wooden floor, passing by the trough which used to hold your dead, human body.

"This… I can't…" You muttered to yourself before bringing a shaky hand up to touch the back of your head again. You winced as you prodded your own wound, feeling the new hole experimentally. It was about three finger-widths wide, and deep, spiderweb-like cracks ran outwards from the center. When your fingers came back with a fine layer of dust covering them, you whimpered pathetically.

" _Fuck!_ " That was about the only coherent word in your vocabulary. _Why_ had you been so unprepared for this? You'd never considered that Gaster wouldn't want your help, would only see you as a potential research opportunity… god, how _stupid_ could you get?

You climbed the ladder to the loft and walked to the back of the storage area, sparing a brief, conflicted glance for the bed-shaped hay bales in the corner. You walked up to the mirror, which was badly cracked from the fit you threw during that one nightmare you'd had long ago. Miraculously, it was still standing. You clasped either side of the mirror with both hands and stared intently at your reflection.

"I give up, okay? You win." You said to yourself, not failing to notice the one, small crack in you skull which made its way all the way around to the corner of your eye socket. When nothing happened, you continued in as clear a voice as you could manage,

"You hear me? I'm _done_. You better come back now before I screw things up again." You held your breath, hoping that you'd disappear. Was that so much to ask?

But there was only silence; you were alone in your own head.

"GET BACK HERE AND _FIX IT_ , YOU SONS OF BITCHES!"

 _SMASH!_ You drew back your fist and _slammed_ it into the mirror. Finally, the old thing gave up and shattered, breaking into tiny pieces. The shards of glass fell to your feet, and your cracked reflection was gone.

You breathed heavily, and let out a dismayed whine when nothing happened. You weren't going to split up. You covered your mouth with your hand to muffle the pathetic sounds you were making.

You were Orion, and it was going to stay that way.

The light of day was streaming into the barn before you found the will to move. The fact remained that you couldn't stay there wallowing in your own self-pity forever. Your next move was obvious; stick to the original plan. Fix whatever damage you'd done to your human body, and put your souls back in their rightful places.

You knew now that this was what you wanted. You truly hadn't cared one way or the other before, but things were different now. You were becoming too much of your own person, and you weren't sure you liked who that was. You had all of the bad traits of your components and seemingly none of the good; you were absent-minded, prone to violent outbursts, arrogant, stubborn, and coldly analytical. Even now, you were examining yourself like a test subject. Like Gaster might've done...

You shook your head and growled frustratedly. If you really were going to consider yourself separate from the human and the monster, then none of that was any of your business. Gaster was Sans' problem, not Orion's.

It was, for the moment, a comfort to think of it that way.

Likewise, if you were your own person, then you had no business commandeering their souls like you were. You stood by what you'd said the second time you'd formed; your two halves had lives to get back to. They had important things to do.

The human was going to be an ambassador, and a damn good one at that. They had a way with words which you seemed to lack. People would listen to them, not only because they're a good speaker, but just by virtue of _being_ human.

The monster needed to reconnect with his brother, and other parts of his old life. Papyrus deserved a chance to get to know his _real_ sibling, not… well, whatever you were. They didn't need Gaster as long as they had each other.

So you found yourself in the true lab, looming over the body, not bothering to turn on the lights. You'd cast aside the sheet covering its face (you didn't know why you'd been so afraid of it to begin with; whatever had happened when you saw it sitting up, alive, on the table must've broken the spell) and proceeded to examine its neck with a clinical eye. Astonishingly, it seemed completely healed. The heart was even beating on its own again; it was like nothing had ever happened. Well, that wasn't entirely true; there were new, leather restraints on the body's wrists and ankles, attached firmly to the table. Presumably, to keep it in place if it should wake up again.

As you examined the body, you heard footsteps approaching from the hallway. You could've ran or hid, but you decided against it. It was time to face the music.

You could tell by her long, purposeful gate that it was Toriel who was approaching. Sure enough, a white, furry paw opened the door. She flicked on the lights and was, understandably, quite startled when she saw you there.

"Orion!" She gasped, a hand flying to her chest in fright. "Goodness, what happened to your…" Her eyes trailed from your cracked skull to the body you were standing over, her expression slowly changing from wide-eyed surprise to controlled neutrality. "Why don't you come with me, dear? You must be hungry and in pain… I will make you breakfast, and do my best to heal you. How does that sound?" Her gaze flicked to the discarded sheet on the floor, and back to your face. She held out a furry paw to you, but you shook your head. It was disheartening, to see her so wary around you. You supposed, after you snapped someone's neck… at least it wasn't Alphys who'd been the first to walk through that door. She had to be downright terrified of you, after what she'd seen you do.

"That's alright. I am… not hungry." That was a downright lie. When was the last time you ate? You couldn't honestly remember. You thought you'd found a burger or something in the Core, but your time in there was so hazy that it was hard to recollect. "You… uh… fixed the body." You gestured awkwardly to the figure under you.

"Oh, yes, well… Papyrus and Doctor Alphys helped, as well. But you needn't worry about that, my child," She took a hesitant step toward you and, when you didn't react, took a few more, "Come with me, I insist," She stepped around the table and took your arm in her hand. Her eyes were fixated on the hole in the back of your head as she pulled you gently away, and you complied wordlessly. Toriel seemed anxious to get you away from the body, so you followed her out of the room if only to pacify her. It seemed like they'd taken care of the body well enough, anyway. As long as it was restrained…

Slowly, Toriel led you by the hand out of the lab and through the Underground. You could've offered to take a shortcut, but, to be honest, you were rather enjoying being dragged around. The lack of control was a comforting change of pace. You followed numbly, a half-step behind the Queen, as she questioned you about your injury and where you'd been for the past week. The prodding questions were gentle, even hesitant, but you had no interest in talking about any of it. Instead of making up some lie, you simply didn't speak. You didn't care, or even really consider, how that would be perceived. Eventually, though, Toriel did give up, and the two of you walked the rest of the way in silence.

She led you past your house, where you knew your laptop was still lying on your bed. You shivered, and resolutely kept your eyes forward. The weight of your phone in your front pocket, containing all of the entries you'd found, suddenly felt a lot heavier.

As soon as you were taken into Toriel's home, you were immediately bombarded by a small figure. They ran head-first into your legs. You stumbled back, more out of surprise than from actually being caught off balance.

"Frisk, be careful!" Toriel was uncharacteristically snappy, which startled the kid. They took a closer look at you, and their eyes widened upon seeing your head. They tried to sneak around behind you to get a better look, but you backed away nervously. Toriel nudged you toward the couch, but you resisted.

"Orion, please. You must sit so that I can heal you." You heard the strain in her voice, and felt a little bad. You didn't mean to cause stress.

"I… don't need it." You took another skittish step back. "I know it looks bad, but it doesn't even hurt." You gave Toriel an imploring look. Even you didn't fully understand why you were opposed to being healed. You thought, initially, that it was just pragmatic; why waste energy fixing this body when it was going to be gone soon, anyway? But you knew, really, that it went deeper than that. It was like... some kind of morbid self-punishment. An unnecessary reminder of what had happened in the void.

The Queen, thankfully, seemed to recognize not to push you on this. She narrowed her eyes in disapproval, but nodded curtly. Before any more words could be exchanged, you felt a small hand tugging on your robe. When you looked down, distracted by the kid, Toriel drifted off into the kitchen.

 **What did you do?** Frisk asked, their hand motions quick and sharp as they pouted.

"Just banged my head on the ceiling. Guess I don't know my own height." You shrugged, lying weakly. The kid shook their head vehemently.

 **No, not that!** They looked… kind of pissed off, actually. You honestly had no idea why, but you weren't at all surprised that you seemed to have unknowingly screwed something else up.

"Gonna have to be more specific." You mumbled. Frisk seemed to hesitate when they saw how lifeless you were, but continued on heatedly,

 **I got teleported all over the place! I had to walk all the way from Alphys' lab back home! In the middle of the night!** They slowly deflated, and you could see how scared they must've been. **And… and you were gone. And you're the only person who knows about weird stuff like that...** They paused and scrunched up their face. You thought you recognized the subtle signs of someone having an internal argument with another person in their head, **The only** _ **adult**_ **, I meant!**

It wasn't hard to guess what had happened. While you'd been messing with the game files, trying to find Entry 17, you'd unknowingly teleported Frisk all over the Underground. It made sense, considering it was their avatar you controlled in the game.

"It won't happen again," You tried to give Frisk a reassuring look, but you figured by their confused expression that you just looked constipated. Instead, you gently ruffled their hair with your normal hand, "Don't worry about it, kid."

"Orion? Do you prefer your eggs fried or scrambled?" Frisk brushed your hand off of their head when you lost focus, turning toward the kitchen to see Toriel sticking her head around the corner.

You were suddenly struck with how _normal_ everything felt, and yet somehow it was all so strange and foreign at the same time. You looked around at your surroundings as though seeing them for the first time. The too-small living room was made more cramped by the couch, coffee table, and TV in the corner. The big rug on the floor somehow made it feel even more claustrophobic. Frisk's drawings cluttered the walls, but only the bottom half, since the kid couldn't seem to reach any higher up. You felt awkward, too big, and out of place. For the first time since you initially arrived at camp, you felt like you didn't belong. You just wanted to disappear.

When you took too long to respond, Toriel and Frisk shared a knowing look. You saw it, but still did nothing to reassure them that you were alright. Why pretend anymore?

"Orion?" Toriel walked up to you and touched your arm gently, but you didn't react. You just stood, frozen. You didn't need to be here, acting like everything was the same. You didn't need to be _anywhere._ Everything was already finished. You'd found Gaster, and everything was ready for you to split your souls. You didn't want to be taken care of.

You just wanted to be done.

"Frisk, my child, why don't you go get Papyrus?" The kid looked up at their mom and blinked confusedly. Toriel's smile was strained, "Quickly, please." You watched, barely comprehending, as Frisk darted out of the house, slamming the door loudly behind them.

"Come, now… it'll be alright." Toriel murmured in a kind voice as she led you by the arm toward the dining room table. You followed, but didn't sit when she pulled your usual chair out for you. You didn't trust that she wouldn't try to heal you as soon as you sat down. She didn't reprimand you, but gave your arm a squeeze before letting go and hurrying to grab something from the kitchen.

It was a towel. One of those smaller ones that people used to wipe their hands on. She gave it to you, and your giant hands dwarfed it. You weren't sure why any of this was happening, though. You looked back up at Toriel with a blank expression, but she didn't seem like she was about to explain herself.

"Sit, dear… I promise I won't touch your head." She took both of your hands in hers, seemingly intent on maintaining physical contact with you. You stubbornly remained standing, rather confused by what was going on. Toriel was speaking so quietly, as if trying to sooth you.

Suddenly, you noticed something dripping from your face. You were so used to liquids seeping from your muscles and running down your bones that you hadn't even noticed it at first. But it was rather unusual for blood to be dribbling down from your head. You tore one hand away from Toriel to feel the back of your skull, but the wetness wasn't coming from your wound. Your fingers went to your chin, where the liquid was dripping down onto the front of your robe, and traced a damp path up to your eyes. You were… crying?

"Oh." You said, rather anticlimactically. At least you knew what the towel was for, now. You took your other hand out of Toriel's paws to dry your face with it, but this was a futile effort. Tears just kept streaming from your eye sockets. Why were you crying? You'd never cried before, and you supposed you'd probably never cry again. The realization only made the tears come harder.

Suddenly feeling weak at the knees, you allowed yourself to fall into the chair behind you. You let out a single, gasping sob. Toriel pulled up a chair for herself and started to make hushing sounds that you supposed were meant to be comforting, but instead just made you feel odd.

Everything felt so surreal; more strange and unnatural than the void itself. You tried to list some facts in your own mind in an effort to ground yourself; a strategy you remembered your monster half trying occasionally.

Your name was Orion. You were in Toriel's house. It was… well, you didn't know the date or the time, but it was early morning. Gaster was your father. Or half-father. You had a hole in the back of your head. You were crying, and didn't know why. You were going to die, as soon as you got around to it...

Yeah, that had never worked for Sans, either.

You were starting to get tired of crying when the front door slammed open again. It was hard to see through the tears, but you instantly recognized the voice of-

"SIBLING!? WHAT HAPPENED?" You wiped your left eye with the back of your hand just in time to see Papyrus running toward you. Despite being significantly smaller than you, he scooped you up into a hug, completely supporting your weight as you leaned into him limply. "YOU'VE BEEN GONE FOR SO LONG AND NOW YOU ARE BACK AND LEAKING TEARS FROM YOUR EYE-HOLES AND OH MY GOD WHY IS YOUR HEAD BROKEN?" He spoke far too fast for you to even begin to respond. He shifted your weight in his arms, leaning your head on his shoulder so that he could bring one hand up to feel the hole in your skull. You winced, and Papyrus stiffened.

Without another word, your brother half-dragged, half-carried you back into the living room. Toriel and Frisk followed behind, watching from a distance as he plopped you on the couch, right where you'd staunchly refused to sit before. He arranged you so that you were sitting sideways, your legs half-folded under you. Your wings hung limply, one thrown over the back of the couch and the other dragging on the floor. You could feel Papyrus' ribs as your spine pressed into his chest, which was, strangely, unarmoured. He must've just woken up and not had time to change out of his pajamas.

"HERE, NOW SIT STILL WHILE I HEAL YOU!" He yelled, his voice loud and shrill with nervousness. You didn't protest; how could you? It was Papyrus. You'd let him drag you back into the void if it would make him happy.

Obediently, you didn't so much as flinch when your brother laid his palms on your skull. Your vision was filled with a warm, orange glow as the back of your head heated up. You could almost feel the cracks in your bones fusing back together. You hummed contentedly, the throbbing in your head which you'd come to ignore quickly dissipating altogether.

A blanket of silence fell over the house as this went on. Frisk came forward to sit on the coffee table, attentively watching Papyrus as he worked. Toriel stayed a good distance away, leaning on the doorframe leading into the kitchen but looking on with just as much interest. The tears on your face began to dry as your unprompted crying ceased, but you continued to clutch the towel between your hands anyway, just to give them something to do.

You weren't sure how long it took, but eventually, Papyrus took his hands off of your head and placed them on your shoulders. He turned you around, unheeding of the blood which soaked through your robe and onto his bare hands.

"Are you hurt anywhere else?" He was quieter now, his eyes boring into yours intensely. You shook your head, which still felt fuzzy and warm. You felt the back of your skull with your fingers again, and found that the hole was still there. It was smaller, though, and the edges were smooth. The cracks radiating out from it were few and far less severe.

"I can't replace the parts that are missing…" Papyrus hung his head, frowning, "But it's better now, right?" After a moment of deliberation, you leaned forward and embraced Papyrus carefully.

"It is, thank you." Your voice was raspy, but got the point across. Papyrus was, truly, too good for you. How could he even stand to be around you after…

"Did you run away because of what happened in the lab?" He asked, his tone of voice too innocent to be talking about such things. When you hesitated to answer, he pulled back from your hug and gave you a serious look, "Queen Toriel would not let me look at the surveillance video, but I know what happened!" He exclaimed, defensively. Toriel clicked her tongue in disapproval. The fact that there was _video_ of what you'd done filled you with cold dread, but you pushed that aside for now.

"Shouldn't be spying on other people's conversations, Pap." You accused gently, assuming by this exchange that Papyrus had eavesdropped when no one would tell him what was going on. His expression went from surprise to annoyance,

"Well, _you_ should not be…" You flinched, assuming he was going to follow that up with 'killing people,' which would have been accurate, but harsh. It was probably what you would've said in his place. Instead, Papyrus paused and finished with, "...running away from people who just want to help you!"

"'Suppose not," You muttered, even though that wasn't really the half of it. Your eyelids drooped. You felt tired. Wrung out. You turned away from Pap and let your head fall against the wall behind the couch. After a moment of hesitation and shifting his weight in his seat, Papyrus added,

"Sibling… I wish you would tell me what happened. I would like to know who hurt you so that I can give them a… a very stern talking-to!" His face scrunched up, conflicted. He actually looked legitimately angry, but like he didn't know how to express it. You didn't recall seeing that look on him very often.

"But…" He continued, once he'd composed himself, "I understand if you do not want to talk about it. I won't be mad at you, and neither will Frisk or Queen Toriel!" You rolled your head to look up at Tori, who, to your surprise, nodded encouragingly, "We just want to help!" Papyrus finished with a smile.

You looked down at your hands, which were still clutching the tear-soaked towel tightly. Mostly, you just wanted everyone to stop staring at you. You felt composed enough now to be embarrassed that you'd cried in front of them, and you almost wished that they'd stop being so nice to you. There was no way you would ever be able to return their kindness; not in the short span of time you had left.

You supposed the best you could do was accept their offers for help, even if you didn't understand how they could be so forgiving.

"Actually, I…" You cleared your throat, still staring resolutely at your hands, "I am a little hungry."

"Excellent!" Papyrus clasped his hands together. Immediately, the silence that had fallen over the room broke, and everyone leapt into action. Toriel said something about coffee, Papyrus proclaimed that he was going to make pancakes, and Frisk jumped off of the table and ran into their room. They came back with a big blanket, which they held out to you with a look of determination.

"Thanks, kid, but I don't want to get blood all over your-" They didn't let you finish. The blanket was around your shoulders before you could say any more about it. Frisk tucked it around your wings and over your lap, insisting without words that you hold onto the front so that it wouldn't fall away. You complied, helplessly. Satisfied, the kid climbed onto the couch and sat next to you, leaning into your side. Whatever fear they'd had of you after the incident with Chara seemed to have melted away.

It wasn't long before Toriel was back with the coffee, and Papyrus came out of the kitchen with a big plate of pancakes. They were all shaped like stars. You heaped your plate full and drenched the pancakes in syrup, to which Papyrus gave you a look of disgust. Frisk copied you, which set your brother off on a tangent about ruining perfectly good pancakes.

For the first time since you arrived, you cracked a smile.

You imposed on the comfort of Toriel's home all day, kept distracted from your problems by whatever games Frisk and Papyrus conned you into playing. The topic of your wound, still a gaping reminder in the back of your head, never came up again. It was like the four of you had created your own little world, just for the day. The illusion was only broken once, when Papyrus called Undyne to let her know that he wasn't coming to work today. You felt bad about that, since you knew how much he enjoyed his job, but he insisted that he'd rather spend the day with you.

Too soon, though, the Queen declared it Frisk's bedtime, and gave you a stern look which clearly said that you should go to bed, too. In an effort to avoid her motherly wrath, you and Papyrus bid everyone goodnight.

Your brother walked you home, even though it was just right next door to his own house.

"Goodnight, sibling!" He said, cheerfully, before adding in a smaller voice, "Nyeh… you… are not going to run away again, right?" You plastered on a false grin and patted his head. He didn't pull away, which was how you knew he was really worried.

"Nah. Don't worry 'bout it... I'm not going anywhere." He gave you a skeptical look before brightening up,

"Alright! I believe you completely!" He wrapped you in yet another hug, though it was over quickly, "Goodnight… sleep tight!"

"Don't let the bedbugs bite," You added with a wink.

"Huh?! There are insects in my bed?!" Papyrus looked unduly concerned, to which you chuckled weakly.

"No, it's just a saying," You opened opened your front door and gave Papyrus a little wave, "Goodnight, brother."

...And you were alone again. The silence after the door closed behind you sent a full-body shiver down your spine. The darkness of your living room, combined with its utter emptiness, didn't help the feeling.

You could've turned on a light, but you decided against it. You sat down on the floor, since the idea of going into your bedroom was too much at the moment. That picture of Sans and his friends on the wall, the cane resting in the corner, the laptop on the bed… there were too many reminders of _them_ in there, and you just needed some time to prepare.

In some way, you almost felt like they were dead. Like you'd killed more than just that body when you'd snapped its neck. You didn't know how, or why, but something had broken in that moment. It seemed illogical; they _couldn't_ be dead. They _were_ you. And yet… you weren't splitting up. You'd never been together like this for so long, and it was frightening. What would happen if you went through with the plan? If you separated your souls…

No, not _if_ , but _when_. You were going to do it. You _wanted_ to do it. And, if all three of you died… well, at least you'd tried.

...You just didn't want to deal with this alone.

 _KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK!_

You jumped, scared out of your wits, when you heard three, rapid knocks on the door. You scrambled to your feet and threw the door open, only to find Papyrus standing in front of you again.

"Oh, sibling! I completely forgot!" He lamented with a helpless flourish of his hands, "I was going to show you as soon as you returned, but then you were injured and crying and it completely slipped my mind!" You blinked, feeling like you were suffering from emotional whiplash what with all of the constant changes in mood.

"Huh?" Papyrus continued on, as though not noticing your confusion.

"Do you remember that day when we were making spaghetti and talking about our pasts and it was all emotional and stuff?" You snorted at his interesting choice of words, but he didn't pause long enough for you to reply, "Well, that got me thinking… how come neither of us knew our parents? I mean, you just woke up in the lab, and I was left on Gerson's doorstep…" You felt suddenly cold, and wished Papyrus wouldn't continue. He did, anyway, heedless of your silent pleading, "So I decided to investigate! While you were gone, I went over to Gerson's place! I asked him about the day he found me, and guess what?!"

"What?" You croaked, dreading the answer. Whatever he was about to say, you knew you weren't going to like it. Papyrus seemed awfully cheerful about it, though.

"He said that whoever dropped me off left a note! He wanted to wait until I was older to tell me about it, but then he forgot to give it to me! Can you believe that?!" He scowled, but you barely noticed. Your magic pumped, heavy, in your bones.

"What'd the note say?" You asked, but you already knew. You just _knew_ what it was…

"I don't know! Neither does Gerson... it's in the same weird language as the necromancy book! I was hoping you could read it to me?" Papyrus held out a note to you with a hopeful expression on his face. You hadn't noticed he was holding it earlier because it was so small. You could barely hold it in your shaking hand without covering up the words with your fingers. Silently, you read to yourself,

"ENTRY NUMBER TEN

THIS EXPERIMENT HAS BEEN  
IMPERFECT  
IT TOOK THEM SO LONG TO GROW  
AND NOW  
ONE OF THEM IS COMPLETELY INCOMPETENT  
WHILE THE OTHER IS MEDIOCRE AT BEST  
USELESS  
BOTH OF THEM  
AT LEAST THEY HAVEN'T GOTTEN THEMSELVES KILLED  
YET

I BELIEVE MY ERROR LIES  
WITH INTRODUCING TOO MUCH VARIATION  
IF THEY WERE TRUE CLONES  
THEY WOULD NOT BE THIS DIFFICULT TO CONTROL

FROM NOW ON  
I NEED TO FOCUS ALL OF MY EFFORTS ON THE CORE  
NO MORE SIDE PROJECTS"

As soon as you finished reading, you closed your fist around the note, crumpling it in your hand. Papyrus stared at you for a moment but, when you said nothing, he asked,

"Ummmm… so… what did it say?" He clasped his hands and tapped his pointer fingers together timidly, a bead of nervous sweat forming on his brow.

"Nothing. I couldn't read it, either." Your lie was incredibly obvious, but what were you going to say? That his father considered him a "side project"? An "experiment"?

" _He is a fool… blundering around, pretending that he knows what he's doing."_

No. Papyrus was strong. He didn't need Gaster… hell, he hadn't even needed Sans, in the end. He was better off never knowing of the man's existence.

The fact of the matter was that Gaster was stuck outside of reality, with no way of contacting anyone who used to know him in his old life. The only solid evidence of his existence was a few scraps of paper and lines of code, almost all of which you held in your pocket. If you could just keep your mouth shut and snuff out the curiosity of anyone who happened to ask questions, you could spare them all from ever knowing that a monster named Gaster had once lived.

"You're right, it does look similar to that book. But it must be a different language, because I can't make heads or tails of it," The lies tumbled out easier than before, your expression smoothing into the mockery of a sad smile, "Sorry, bro. Maybe I could hang onto it and try to decipher it?" Papyrus' shoulders slumped, but he visibly steeled himself before nodding,

"Shoot! Okay… well, thank you for trying!" He beamed up at you. You didn't feel the least bit of remorse for deceiving him. "Tell me when you figure it out, okay?!"

"I will, but I might not be able to. And it might take a while…" You could only hope that, given enough time, Papyrus would eventually forget about this.

"Don't be so pessimistic! I'm sure you'll get it eventually; you're such a smart cookie!" You chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of your neck.

"Thanks. But, y'know… it's pretty late. We should get some sleep." Papyrus looked over his shoulder, as though just now noticing the stars in the sky. In the distance, you could see the glow of light radiating outward from Ebott City.

"Right! Goodnight... for real, this time!" You gave Papyrus a nod and watched him scamper away, back to his own house. You waited for him to get inside before retreating back into your living room, quietly shutting the door behind you.

Without a second thought, you dug in your front pocket and pulled out your phone. You were nearly out of space, but the tiny, crumpled-up note didn't take up much. It fit into your dimensional box alongside all of the others.

It wasn't the first time you'd used your phone since your disappearing act, but only now did you notice the hundreds of messages and missed calls. From Papyrus, Alphys, Undyne, Toriel, Asgore, Frisk… you name it. You scrolled through the confused questions and the pleas for you to come home while wandering absentmindedly into your room.

Still focused on your phone, you picked up your laptop with the other hand and gently placed it back into the bottom drawer of your dresser. The plastic covering your mattress crinkled and popped loudly when you flung yourself onto it.

You continued to read the texts until you got to the point where Papyrus started bargaining with you in an effort to get you to come home. You huffed, tossed the phone carelessly onto the nightstand, and pressed the palms of your hands into your closed eyes.

Reading about how much everyone missed you when you were gone was not very helpful, considering you were about to leave them again in a much more permanent way.

"Tomorrow," You said to the empty room, with finality, "This ends tomorrow."


	31. Is This a Cure

After a long night of trying and failing to sleep, you started off the next day by sending an early morning group text to everyone in your contacts.

"I'm sorry I worried everyone. I'm fine. We're going to be separating our souls tonight at 9. You don't have to be there, but I thought you might want to know."

Immediately afterwards, you sent a private text to Alphys,

"Can we talk? It's nothing bad."

Even though it took you an age to type anything on the tiny keyboard on your phone, you still took the time to add the last part. You knew Alphys would be needlessly anxious if you didn't. Before long, you received a reply,

"sure! meet u at the lab?"

That was how you found yourself back underground, knocking on Alphys' door for once instead of just teleporting inside like you usually did. The last thing you wanted to do was startle her, but she seemed pretty startled anyway when the door slid open to reveal your hulking form.

"O-oh! Y-you got here s-so fast… I f-forgot you can…" She blushed and looked down at her hands, "N-nevermind… um…"

"Alphys, I'm so sorry," You interrupted her, your voice low and quiet, "I killed the body in front of you, I spat in the face of all of your hard work… and then I didn't even stick around to help clean up my own mess. I was rash and impulsive… and scared. And I'm sorry." Alphys blinked up at you wide-eyed before giving you a tentative smile.

"T-that's okay! I understand… I was scared, too! I-I mean, not of you, just… in general," Her face grew impossibly redder, "The p-point is, it wasn't so bad that we c-couldn't fix it. So no harm done!" You had to disagree; you were sure you'd done plenty of harm on that day and in the days following. But you didn't want to linger on this too long, for fear of screwing something up.

"Thanks, Alphys," You shifted your weight from foot to foot, "Um... could I come in? There's a couple of things I'd like to check on in the lab before tonight…"

"Y-yeah! Of course!"

With that settled, Alphys accompanied you down to the true lab, using the long elevator ride to catch you up on what had happened while you were gone. You listened quietly while she described how she'd immediately called Toriel, who called Asgore, both of whom came down to the lab to watch the surveillance footage of you slaughtering your human body.

Well, Alphys had put it in less abrasive terms, but it was all the same. You were torn between wanting to destroy the footage as soon as possible and wanting to keep it yourself as a reminder of what had happened. In the end, you said nothing, and figured it would stay in Alphys' lab forever, slowly collecting dust.

At any rate, after the King and Queen had been informed, there apparently had been a search party sent out to look for you. The group had consisted of Undyne and your canine neighbors, and you were genuinely touched to hear that they cared that much about you. You hadn't thought you'd made much of an impact on anyone, except maybe Papyrus.

Speaking of which, Papyrus had been… upset. Alphys became rather cagey when you asked about him, and all that you managed to get out of her was that he'd missed you and had been a big help with getting your human body back into working order. He'd been the one to push everyone to get it done before you got back.

The conversation came to a grinding halt when you and Alphys reached the body, itself. It was still uncovered, with the sheet lying, forgotten, on the ground. No one must've disturbed it since you and Toriel were there yesterday.

"It h-hasn't woken up since…" Alphys trailed off as she watched you walk up to the table. You hummed as you looked - _really_ looked - at the whole body for the first time. Its skin was practically translucent; you could see every vein, filled with your own blood. The body had lost almost all of its mass, like it was slowly becoming a skeleton, itself. You touched the top of its head, running your left hand through its hair. It was longer than you usually kept it, not because it had grown at all while it was dead, but because your human half hadn't even thought to cut it while you were stuck in the Underground. That hadn't exactly been your top priority at the time.

As you lifted your hand off of the body's unkempt hair, several strands came with you. A pretty sizable chunk, in fact. Not exactly the most reassuring sign.

But, if the body had been able to wake up on its own, at least that was proof that it was habitable. If this stunt was going to fail, you didn't think it would be because the body was unfit to hold your soul.

You were more worried about what Chara had said. It felt like a lifetime ago, but you still remembered every word. Their own experience being in the same body as Asriel seemed to suggest that separating two souls was no simple task. Was it even possible? Would you just end up shattering them both when you tried?

"Could we do another test run on the DTEM?" You looked over your shoulder at Alphys, who was still standing at the doorway, wringing her hands together, "I just want to make sure…"

"S-sure! No problem!" You thought you caught a hint of relief on Alphys' face as you stepped away from the body. Before you left, you picked up the sheet off of the floor and draped it over the table again. You figured your human self would not appreciate having their near-naked body exposed like that.

...

"Um…" Alphys nervously interrupted while you were inspecting the small tube that was hanging off of one end of the DTEM. It was this part that you would have to attach to your own souls, and you were just starting to wonder at the logistics of that. You tore your eyes away from the apparatus to look at the scientist, "T-the tests look good… and s-so do the retests… isn't there s-something else you'd rather be doing? N-not that I don't like h-hanging out down here with you, but…"

You checked your phone for the time, and were surprised to find that it was already noon. You only had nine hours before… and you were spending it down in the lab. But what else could you do? You didn't exactly have a bucket list. You hadn't lived long enough to come up with one.

"Uh… well, I guess I should probably talk to Asgore…" You didn't particularly want to. Toriel was really the only person who understood your souls, and how you could sometimes fluctuate between being three different people with no warning. Asgore… well, he just didn't really get it. But, as the King, he probably deserved to know what was going on with you, whether you wanted to talk to him or not. You were surprised he hadn't called you yet, actually.

"T-that's probably a g-good idea," Alphys nodded and shut down the DTEM. Its constant humming slowed until the room was blanketed in silence, "I'll see you tonight, right?" You startled as you tucked the tube back into its proper place.

"I guess... if you want," You muttered. You supposed it made sense for Alphys to want to be there tonight; she'd want to see if all of her hard work paid off. But, despite the fact that you'd told everyone when it was happening, you hadn't actually thought anyone would be there with you. You supposed you didn't really mind, either way.

"Of course!" Alphys said, with more confidence than you were used to from her.

"See you later, then," You finished, before taking a step backwards into a shortcut. Self-indulgently, you kept the portal open long enough to see Alphys' surprised expression as you disappeared.

After that, the rest of the day was spent being shuffled between different people's houses. You told Asgore about as much as you'd told Toriel and Papyrus (which was to say, not much), but he, too, seemed to know not to press you for information. He was glad that you were finally going to split your souls, and even congratulated you on all of your hard work to make this happen.

He seemed to think that everything was all wrapped up nice and neat. In a way, you guessed it was. You'd set out with two jobs to do; figure out a way to split your souls, and find out what happened to Gaster. In both cases, you'd started from scratch, with no prior experience or examples to go on. You'd worked hard, accomplished both goals, and now? You were done. That was it.

Instead of being comforted by this, you just felt… unsatisfied. It was all so anticlimactic. For the first task, you'd done exactly what you'd needed to do. You fixed the DTEM and got the body ready to receive your human soul, just like you wanted. Nothing more, nothing less. As far as Gaster was concerned… well. You couldn't change him. You'd found him, gotten your questions answered, and tried to talk him into letting you help him. There was nothing more you could do. You were glad it was almost over, to be sure, but…

You felt like you were missing something, but you knew you weren't. This was just… it.

You weren't a fan of the unsettled feeling you were getting from being around Asgore, so you kept your visit brief and bid him farewell. You were just thinking you'd go back to the lab and wait quietly for nightfall when Frisk spotted you walking down the road. The child roped you into going over to their house for lunch, even though you didn't see the point. Why bother fueling this body when it would be gone soon? But you didn't have the will to argue against anyone at the moment, especially the ever-determined Frisk.

Lunch with Toriel and the kid passed uneventfully. They both seemed like they were trying to cheer you up, but you didn't think you needed it. You had to check multiple times to make sure you weren't crying again, but your eyes were dry. They were just worrying unnecessarily.

As soon as you escaped Toriel's, you were immediately ambushed on the street by Undyne and Papyrus. Despite being significantly shorter than you, Undyne managed to loop an arm around your neck and pull you down into a noogie.

"Ahg!" You yelped in pain as her fist hit too close to the still-open wound on the back of your head. All you wanted was a peaceful last day alive; was that so much to ask?

"UNDYNE! BE CAREFUL!" Papyrus yelled nervously as he pulled the fish woman off of you. As soon as you were able, you straightened up and took a quick step back, shooting Undyne a cross look as you massaged the back of your abused skull.

"Oh, whoops! My bad!" She exclaimed, but you didn't think she sounded very sorry, "Hey, it's not my fault! This nerd said he healed you!" She gestured helplessly to Papyrus, who shook his head vehemently.

"NO! I did heal them, but not all the way! I told her that, I swear!"

"No you didn't!"

"Yes I did!"

"Guys, it's fine," You broke up their bickering before they could get too rowdy. "No harm done," You gave them a half-hearted grin before trying to discreetly slip past them. There was a shortcut right behind Undyne that would take you up to the cliff where the barrier once stood, but she blocked you off before you could make your escape.

"Hey, wait! That's one badass battle-scar! You gotta tell me how you got it!" Papyrus looked between you and Undyne, wringing his hands together nervously. Undyne, oblivious to the tension, continued on enthusiastically, "Oh! D'you think your other body will get to keep it? How does that even work?"

It took you longer than it should have to realize that she was talking about Sans. You'd been so focused on the human body that you hadn't even thought about how this might affect your monster self. Undyne looked hopeful, like she _wanted_ you to have permanent damage to the back of your skull. She certainly had an unusual way of looking at things.

"I don't know," You answered honestly, your tone impassive. You truly didn't care one way or another, as long as it didn't affect your ability to do magic. But you had a feeling your monster half might care, if the wound did persist through the splitting of your souls. Undyne seemed undeterred by your less than enthusiastic reply.

"Hey, speaking of that… what're you gonna do with your last day as a tall freak? Gonna get stuck in another tree?" You let out a long-suffering sigh. Ever since Undyne found out about that, she'd found every opportunity to tease you. It seemed she hadn't forgotten about it in the week you'd been gone.

"No. I don't really have any plans." As the words left your mouth, you realized it was the wrong thing to say. Undyne bared her teeth in a sharp grin.

"Great! Because I still haven't gotten a rematch after our last sparring session!"

With that, Papyrus and Undyne dragged you all the way back to her house. Along the way, you managed to convince them to spar each other instead of you, with the excuse that you didn't want to exacerbate the cracks in the back of your head. Besides, you hadn't stayed long enough to see them fight last week, and that alone was enough to convince Papyrus.

"OH MY GOSH… SIBLING! YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN ME TRAIN?! WE MUST RECTIFY THIS TRAGEDY IMMEDIATELY!"

...And so you spent the rest of the afternoon watching the two of them fight each other. It actually wasn't so bad; nothing much was expected of you aside from the occasional round of applause or thumbs up whenever Papyrus glanced at you. Plus, the friendly sparring was entertaining enough that it kept your mind off of less pleasant things.

After Papyrus got bested by Undyne several times, the three of you went inside of her old house to have some hot chocolate. Your monster half had never been in there, and the human part had only seen it through the pixelated game, so it was at least mildly interesting to see Undyne's house from the inside. It was pretty bare, since she lived on the surface now, but her piano was still tucked against the wall, too big for even Undyne to carry to her new house.

You mentioned offhand that your human self knew how to play the piano, which led to Undyne challenging you to play a song with just as much gusto as she'd used to challenge you to a duel. Of course, you weren't very good at it, given that half of your fingers were basically knives. But it was oddly soothing, anyway. Your phalanges running, clumsily, over the keys… bone on ivory. Both of your friends clapped at the end, even though you knew for a fact that it hadn't sounded great.

That was the first time you cracked a smile all day.

Before you knew it, it was time to head to the lab. It had been an odd last day of existence, but not altogether bad. Nothing extraordinary had happened, nor did you have any kind of divine revelations. But it could've been worse.

Undyne and Papyrus had insisted on accompanying you to the lab, but, as the door slid open, you remembered something you'd forgotten to do.

"Uh, you guys go on… I'll be right back." You didn't wait for them to ask where you were going before slipping through a shortcut.

And another.

And another.

After jumping through a few shortcuts, you found yourself outside of your own house once more. You dashed inside and hurried into your room; thankful for the hundredth time that you didn't have any furniture or decorations in the living room, otherwise you would've surely knocked all of them over. You made a beeline for the dusty corner of your bedroom where your cane had been leaning against the wall for months. You snatched it up, and paused for a moment to weigh it in your hands. It was comically small and useless to you now, but you knew the human would appreciate having it on hand when they woke up.

With that, you hurried back outside, not wanting to be any more late than you already were. But almost immediately, something else caught your eye and stopped you in your tracks.

The front door swung shut loudly behind you, but you hardly noticed. You were too busy staring up at the sky. There was not a single cloud in sight, and you were treated to an unobstructed view of the stars. The nearly-full moon shined bright overhead, and the cold breeze added to the almost mystical feeling. You glanced, briefly, to your left and right, and saw that there were no lights on in any of your neighbor's houses. Were they all asleep already?

You looked straight up at the sky again as you walked, blindly, into the road. You stumbled a little over the steps leading down from your front door, but couldn't be bothered to stop searching the stars. It took you much longer than usual to find your constellation; it was hiding behind your house, just barely visible over the horizon. Like it was sinking down into oblivion, taking one last look at the Earth before it disappeared, silently, from view.

You took some solace from that, though you could never begin to explain why. No one was around to see, so you gave your namesake a nod of appreciation before turning away from it. You clutched your cane tighter in hand while you opened up the same shortcut you'd come in from, feeling inexplicably more at ease than when you'd arrived.

After traveling through the same shortcuts as before, you appeared back on Alphys' doorstep. The sliding metal door opened automatically for you; she must've left it unlocked. You walked inside and, finding no one on the first floor, headed straight for the elevator. The long ride down was utterly silent save for the hum of machinery. You had to admit that you were getting a little nervous. You'd been completely fine for the whole day up until this point; so why were your hands suddenly shaking? Why was your magic thudding so loudly in your skull? Helpless to change it, you simply stared at the seam between the elevator doors and waited for this all to pass.

Eventually, the elevator let out a chipper " _ding!_ " and the doors parted. You took a few, thoughtless steps forward before you noticed voices in the distance. Absentmindedly, you followed them to their source, which happened to be the large bedroom. You understood immediately why they were all gathered there; there was no other room in the lab big enough to fit so many people.

You blinked, confused, as you mentally counted everyone. There was Alphys, Papyrus, Undyne, Toriel, Asgore… and even Frisk. Everyone who knew of your situation was there, and they had all turned to look at you while you stood in the doorway, dumbfounded.

"Oh, g-good idea! I bet you… ah… w-won't be very steady on your feet right away," Alphys praised you with a small smile, and it took you a moment to realize that she was talking about the cane clutched in your hands.

"The human will need it, regardless," You muttered, still a little overwhelmed by all of the people staring at you, "What's everyone doing here?"

"Orion, dear, you did not think we would want to miss this, did you?" Toriel said in a gentle voice. Papyrus piped up after her,

"Of course we all want to be here for you, sibling!" He gave you a big smile, and you felt something in your chest ache. The pain was welcome, though.

"Yeah! I'm gonna be the first to greet the two punks who helped break the barrier!" Undyne pointed at herself with her thumb, a sharp grin on her face. You chuckled incredulously.

"I, too, would like to meet the both of you separately," Asgore's deep voice rumbled throughout the room, "And, besides… if you should be successful, it will be a huge breakthrough in our understanding of souls. What happens tonight will change the future between humans and monsters…"

Frisk, who was standing next to Asgore and holding his giant hand, nodded solemnly. They looked, for lack of a better word, determined.

"I… well… thank you." You stumbled over your words, feeling your face heat up. You had no idea that they were all so invested in your well being. Perhaps you hadn't paid enough attention.

"W-well, um… I already moved the… ah… human into the DTEM room. I m-mean, I d-don't want to rush you…"

"No, you're right. I don't want to put this off any longer." You interrupted Alphys and drew yourself up, bringing the tips of your boney wings to scrape against the tiled floor. The pinpricks of light in your eye sockets flicked from person to person in the crowded room. "Thank you guys for coming. It means a lot to me, but… you really can't all be in the room with me. The modified Determination Extraction Machine has never had a live test subject, and we don't know how stable it is. I should be alone in there, in case it goes wrong."

"Doctor Alphys warned us that you might say that," Toriel spoke up, and reached forward to put her hand on Frisk's head absentmindedly. You thought she might look worried or disappointed, but instead, she smiled, "I have the utmost confidence that this machine will work exactly as you intended, but, if you wish, we will all wait out here until it is over."

You nodded gratefully, then were promptly tackle-hugged by your brother. You stumbled back, but thankfully regained your balance before both of you crashed to the floor.

"YOU'LL BE JUST FINE! NOTHING WILL GO WRONG, I AM ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE!" The way Papyrus wailed it in your ear while tightly clutching the fabric of your robe said otherwise, but you played along, more for his sake than your own.

"I know. I just want to be as safe as possible," You patted him on the back, and he gave you one last squeeze before letting go.

"D-do you want me to help you s-set it up?" Alphys spoke up, wringing her hands nervously. You were suddenly reminded that you'd have to bare your souls in order for this to work, and quickly waved away her offer.

"No thanks. I know what to do." You didn't particularly want anyone gawking at your conjoined souls, and you _definitely_ didn't want anyone else attaching a tube to said souls.

"O-of course!" She squeaked, "Um… the machine's p-pretty loud, s-so I guess we'll just… come in whenever we hear it stop?"

"I guess," You answered, simply, and were suddenly confronted with the fact that it was time to go. A brief moment of silence prompted you to start walking; you didn't want to let the quiet linger for too long, or else people might start saying some awkward goodbyes. You didn't want or need that.

Your bare feet clicked on the floor, and you half-wished someone would stop you as you trekked across the bedroom. No one did, though, and you made it to the exit on the other side without anyone saying a word.

"SEE YOU IN A FEW MINUTES, SIBLING!" Papyrus called out, suddenly, from behind you. You turned your head to look over your shoulder, and saw him waving. Seeing this, Undyne raised her arm and whipped it back and forth wildly. Frisk joined in with a tiny little waggle of their fingers, tugging on Asgore's robe imploringly as they did so. He chuckled, and raised his own hand in solidarity. Toriel gave you a small smile, though you could see there was worry underlying it. She waved at you, all the same. Finally, Alphys, a little late on the uptake, quickly shot her hand in the air with all of the others.

You snorted at the absurdity of it, then wiped your itchy eyes with the back of your hand. There wasn't much you could do other than wave back, so that was what you did. With that, you took one last look at everyone and disappeared around the corner.

The walk down to the DTEM room was quiet. Halfway down the hallway, though, you began to hear a faint beeping sound, growing louder and louder the closer you got. The source of the incessant noise became clear as the final set of metal doors slid open; someone must've attached the heart rate monitor onto the human body's finger.

The body itself had been transferred to a rolling table and covered back up with the sheet. You walked over to it as the door slid shut automatically behind you, sparing a quick, nervous glance toward the giant machine looming in the center of the room. After setting the cane on the floor, you grasped the sheet at the body's head and swept it off of the table, letting it fall to the ground carelessly. Mechanically, you went about removing all of the life-giving machines attached to it. Off went the respirator, which had breathed for the body before its lungs were fully healed. The IV line, which had supplied the body with much needed fluids, slid out of its clammy skin easily. The heart rate monitor was the last to go. You could've kept that one on, but the beeping was not doing anything to calm your nerves. It let out a frantic flatline as it was removed from the body, until you were able to silence it with the flick of a switch.

You took a moment to look over the body, unobstructed by machinery for the first time since it had bathed in ice, before you started attaching different devices to it. Six smaller lines and one larger tube had to be attached to various points on the body. You didn't completely understand what all of them did; that was more Alphys' line of work than yours. But you at least knew where they went, and that was what mattered.

Only when it was all hooked up did you release the restraints on the body's wrists and ankles. If it woke up now and jumped off of the table, tearing everything off of itself, you'd have big problems. But there was no way you were going to make your human self wake up in a body that was hog-tied to a table, so the restraints had to go.

Finally, you stepped away from the body and bent over to pick up a tube that hung from the other side of the DTEM. The tube was identical to the one the body wore, and was supposed to attach to your souls. You looked at the tube, then down at your chest skeptically. You knew what it felt like to draw someone else's soul out of their body, courtesy of your monster half. And you knew what it felt like to have your own soul drawn out, courtesy of the human. But you'd never summoned your own soul yourself, and, in fact, weren't even sure if it was possible.

You figured you might as well try, though, before giving up and going back to the others for help. You held the tube loosely in your left hand while you brought your taloned hand up to your sternum. You concentrated on that feeling you knew too well; the sensation of your very essence coalescing and leaving your body. With a full-body shiver, you drew your hand away slowly. What followed in its wake was a familiar, purple-and-white shape. It looked the same as it had two days ago; the lilac and the white mixed together in a cloudy storm, though the colors didn't churn as violently as before. As your soul snapped completely free of your chest, you felt your own magic pulse outward powerfully, causing the idling DTEM to creak in protest.

Wasting no time, you brought the tube up to your heart-shaped soul. Oddly, your soul seemed almost attracted to it, as it lurched forward to attach itself to the tube as soon as it was close enough. You groaned and braced one hand on the DTEM, as the feeling of your soul touching an inanimate object was… strange. The human parts of the soul seemed especially keen on the tube, since the area around its opening was slowly turning more lavender as the outer edges of the soul grew duller.

You looked up one more time at the human body, making sure its chest was still rising and falling rhythmically. Keeping your right hand on the metallic surface of the machine, you took a few steps around to the side of the DTEM where there was a single, lone lever waiting to be pulled. Your soul fluttered and pulsed wildly, though you didn't think that had anything to do with the tube that was attached to its center. Your hands, too, were shaking, phalanges rattling around as you placed them, slowly, on the handle of the lever. Just one switch… you just had to pull this one switch...

You glanced to the left, and caught sight of your distorted reflection in the shiney surface of the machine. Your eyes were blown wide, and your mouth was parted slightly as your breath came in quick, anxious huffs of air. The back of your robe was so blood-soaked that drops were starting to trickle down your spine, and a single, lone feather was trembling so hard that it fell off of your wing and floated down to the ground.

In your last moments, you gathered every ounce of determination you had. Your soul flared bright, but you barely noticed it before slamming your eyes shut and throwing down the lever.

...

Everything _fucking_ _ **HURT.**_

You felt yourself hurling through space, felt as though you were _on fire_ , and being flung back and forth _mercilessly_. There was a high pitched sound blasting in your ears, and something _hammering_ in your chest. As soon as you realized you could, you began to flail, your body spasming uncontrollably. Something crashed, and there was a sudden pain in your side. You rolled. Things were ripping, tearing, burning…

" _SANS!_ " You _wailed_ , and it _hurt_ , and you reached, blindly. Who was Sans? Who were _you_? You didn't know, but you just _needed_ -

There was a strangled cry that _hadn't_ come from you. You threw yourself in its direction, and felt more things ripping from your chest. You whimpered and _heaved_ , desperately dragging yourself toward that sound.

After a moment of struggle which felt like life-or-death, you collided with something. Something living. It reached up and grabbed the back of your head, pressing your face against its chest and holding you there with as much desperation as you felt.

"Thank god… thank _god_..." A low voice sounded from above, and you didn't know what was happening, but this… this felt better. You gasped and shook and felt like your very organs were tearing you apart from the inside, but you managed to reach up and fumble around until you were clutching something that felt suspiciously like an open ribcage.

You were crying, and he was crying, and you were clinging to each other like it was the only thing keeping either of you sane.


	32. Or Is This a Disease?

_Fwwwwwp!_

The sound of a plastic sheet being pulled off of a mattress was distinct - irreplicable by any other means. It crackled and warbled as it folded in on itself, falling off of the end of your bed. Before it even had time to hit the floor, you had already collapsed on the now-bare mattress, too exhausted by that simple task to bother with regular sheets or blankets. Maybe by tomorrow morning you will have gathered enough energy to make your bed proper. Then, you supposed you'd fall asleep again, too worn down by that to do anything more.

For a few, long minutes, you laid face-down on the bed and focused on the blood pounding, relentlessly, in your legs. It reminded you of that time you'd gone on a class fieldtrip to the big museum in North Ebott and stubbornly refused to take your cane. Except this time you'd only been on your feet for a few minutes, not hours, and already you were feeling like you never wanted to walk again.

You groaned, not because it brought any relief, but just because it filled the silence. It had only been moments since you and Sans took to your separate rooms, and you were already lonely. No… it was more than that. Your chest ached with the need to be by his side, or was that just the pain from your too-loud heartbeat? But what else were you going to do? The two of you hadn't properly talked since… well, since Italy, really. You were both too exhausted to start now. It was probably for the best if you gave each other some space. You couldn't be attached at the hips forever…

The first few hours after your soul separation were difficult for you to remember. The memories seemed to slip away as soon information hit your brain. You vaguely remember being huddled on the floor, clinging to Sans while he had his arms wrapped around you. Your friends had found the two of you tangled in Orion's robe, which must've slipped off of Sans when his body shrunk back to its normal size. Papyrus, apparently, had been the only one who could get through to either of you, but you didn't remember that part at all.

The first thing you could recall with any sort of clarity was being carried by Sans. He'd recovered much more quickly than you, and was already speaking full sentences by the time you were even conscious enough to form rational thoughts. You remembered him hoisting you up, holding you with his arms under your thighs while you leaned into his chest. He was talking to someone, but you hadn't had the capacity to understand what he was saying or to whom. It was like you were waking up from a deep sleep, except the process took several hours instead of minutes.

Sans had set you on the same metal table you'd woken up on, but didn't pull away as you continued to cling to him. Someone (Alphys, you learned later) had given you a white lab coat to wear. You found that Sans was dressed in the same thing, once you were aware enough to notice. You remembered wishing everyone would leave you and Sans alone as you were poked, prodded, and questioned. Eventually, you managed to work past the knot in your sore throat to answer them.

"How do you feel?" Bad.

"Does anything hurt?" Everything.

"Is there anything we can do?" No.

"Can you let go of Sans so we can check you over?" Definitely not.

After a few minutes of gentle coercion, you compromised by allowing Sans to sit next to you on the table while you squeezed his hand. Throughout the whole ordeal, the skeleton in question said nothing. He held onto you until you let go of him, and went wherever you guided him. You leaned into him while Toriel checked your fluttering pulse, and he leaned back.

That pattern had continued for the rest of the night. When you grew strong enough to insist that you be brought back to your house on the surface as soon as possible, Sans silently backed your request. Everyone else had implored you to stay in the lab until you were at least well enough to walk, to which you stubbornly pushed up off of the table and stood on shaky legs. Sans had moved with you without hesitation, allowing you to lean on him while your weak knees knocked together. Instead of frantically ushering you to sit back down like Papyrus and Toriel were doing, Sans calmly suggested that you should break the surface at four in the morning, since that was when the guards in their towers changed shifts. They'd be less likely to notice the lot of you if they were busy clocking in and out. Once Asgore chimed in by offering to carry you up to your house hidden in one of his moving boxes, it was all but decided.

You and Sans had been forced to leave each other's line of sight for the first time once four o'clock rolled around. You'd spent the time leading up to that half-asleep on top of each other, while your friends all talked quietly amongst themselves. Frisk and Papyrus had tried to engage you and Sans in a card game, but you were both just too tired to indulge them. Around midnight, Undyne had volunteered to bring a sleepy Frisk home, so it was just Asgore, Toriel, Papyrus, and Alphys helping you into the biggest box Asgore had been able to rustle up from his guest bedroom. You hadn't really realized the consequences of this plan until you had to let go of Sans' hand.

It took a lot not to request that Sans squeeze into the box with you, but you held back. It was just unnecessary; there'd be a riot if a weak, underfed human was seen exiting the Underground, but a skeleton monster who no one's seen before was barely even worth a second glance. There were a lot of monsters underground who've never gone to the surface, so Sans wouldn't look at all suspicious to the human guards.

The knowledge of how irrational you were being did nothing to still the panic as the flaps of the box were closed over you, and Sans disappeared from your sight.

Still, though, you'd managed to get through it. You sat still, curled in a tight ball, until you felt yourself being deposited gently on the floor. When Papyrus helped you out of the box, Sans handed you your cane, which you hadn't even used at all down in the lab. For the first time, you stood without anyone else's assistance and, as soon as everyone else had left, you promptly claimed Orion's old room and locked yourself inside.

As you replayed the events that had led up to this in your mind, you rubbed your face into the mattress below you and groaned again. You turned your head so that you were looking at the door, wondering if Sans had gone to the other bedroom or if he was still standing in the living room, looking lost. Your gaze wandered subconsciously until you were staring at the picture on the wall. The one and only picture Orion had bothered to hang up; the one of Sans, Papyrus, and all of their friends on the surface for the very first time. That first pacifist playthrough, when everything had been okay and nothing was overly complicated. No one had died, no one had to absorb anyone's soul… Sans never even had to meet you.

Why couldn't you have just left well enough alone?

Of course, you hadn't known… you hadn't known…

But you could give everyone that happy ending again, if you wanted.

You turned onto your other side, wincing as the movement jostled your hips. You stared blankly at the bottom drawer of your dresser, where you knew Orion had put your laptop.

Resetting would be so easy.

You'd thought about it once before. In the early days, when you and Sans had lived in the barn, barely getting by on stolen pretzels from vending machines. You'd slept in shifts back then, and when Sans was asleep you had the freedom to think about anything without the fear of being overheard.

Something about pacifist run resets was different from the others. After all, humans didn't remember monsters getting to the surface the first time you'd done one, so that reset must've affected the surface world somehow. The game just didn't _do_ that, not normally. It was a cleaner slate than any other reset, and you had to admit that it was appealing.

Everyone would remember Sans again. He and Papyrus would be brothers; they'd share a childhood together. As rough as that childhood had been, as it stood right now, Papyrus was missing out on something wonderful. Sans was a great brother and, as much as Papyrus might insist that they could rebuild what they'd had before, it would never be the same. If you had the chance to give them their relationship back, shouldn't you?

Sans would never find out about Gaster. Perhaps it was your own hubris shining through, but you were confident that he never would've solved that mystery without you or Orion. Gaster would remain a bad dream, scattered throughout the Underground on slips of paper and bits of code. In this case, ignorance was bliss. If you could save Sans the pain of finding out about his negligent dad, shouldn't you do that?

And, perhaps the most compelling and selfish reason of all, you would never remember any of this. You didn't remember the first time you'd reset a pacifist run, so there was no reason for you to remember this one. You wanted to go home. You wanted to be safe, not irreversibly tied to monsters for the rest of your life. You wanted to be a doctor, not a freedom fighter for a species you didn't even belong to. And you sure didn't want to lie on this bed every day, staring at the dresser and wondering if today would be the day you'd finally nut up and hit that button.

Might as well get it over with now, because the odds were good that you'd eventually cave in anyway.

But, really, even as you were thinking this… you knew you couldn't do it. To get that happy ending, you'd have to play a pacifist run after resetting. And, if a reset would mean erasing your own memories, how would you ever know that that was what you had to do? What would stop you from just making the same mistakes again? You didn't trust yourself to do the right thing the second time around.

Besides… how far back would a reset go? Would you even have your soul? Would Sans remember everything, even if you didn't? Would Chara?

...It was just too risky. You couldn't afford to let yourself forget any of this.

You would just have to learn to leave well enough alone.

With that decided, you promptly rolled backwards with the intent of getting to your feet. Instead, your knees buckled under you and you fell to the floor with a loud and graceless _THUD_. The fall knocked the wind out of you, and you simply laid there for a moment while you caught your breath. You half-hoped that Sans, sensing your distress, would come in and rescue you, but no such luck. As soon as you were able, you crawled over to your cane (which you'd dropped at the door upon entering your room) and used it and the wall to leverage yourself back onto your feet. This feat was ten times more exhausting than it had any right to be, and by the time you managed to fumble with the lock on your door and throw it open, you were ready to drop to the floor again.

Once you hobbled out into the living room, you found that Sans had, in fact, moved. You had a pretty good guess at where he'd gone, since the door to the second bedroom was cracked open instead of completely closed, like usual. You tried to be quiet as you made your way over there, but it was pretty difficult when the rubber bottom of your cane had long since worn away and the exposed metal left behind clicked obnoxiously against the wooden floors.

Carefully, you pushed the bedroom door open and leaned against the doorframe. Sans was already in bed, his back to you and the blankets pulled up to his chin. In the dim light, you could just barely see the little, dime-sized hole in the back of his skull, a scar from Orion's injury which had persisted through the soul separation. You watched him for a while, well aware that you were being incredibly creepy, but unable to bring yourself to go back. You'd been the one who'd retreated so quickly to your own room, so you had no right to complain about the self-enforced isolation. But something about being away from Sans, even if it was only two walls between you, just _hurt_.

As you were debating with yourself over what to do, Sans rolled over so that he was lying on his back. Without even opening his eyes, he flipped up the corner of the blankets and scootched over a little. An invitation.

You took it, and limped slowly over to the bed. You sank into the mattress and pulled the blankets over you, sighing as the warmth soothed your aching muscles. You laid shoulder-to-shoulder with Sans for a minute before rolling onto your side to face him. He turned his head, his eyes now open.

"I thought about resetting," Your voice was hoarse as you blurted it out right away, unwilling (perhaps even unable) to keep anything from Sans. He nodded calmly, unsurprised. You didn't know why you thought he would be.

"I knew you wouldn't," He shrugged, then turned to stare at the ceiling. You ended up being the one who was surprised.

"Really?" You hadn't known until a couple minutes ago whether or not you'd go through with it, but here Sans was, having utter faith in you. You didn't deserve that.

"Yeah. And, y'know… even if you did decide to do it, there's nothin' I coulda done to stop you, short of destroying the computer. And who knows what kind of consequences that'd have…" He trailed off, then shrugged again, "But I knew you wouldn't, anyway, so it doesn't matter."

You stared at him, while he stubbornly kept his eyes trained upwards. After a moment, you leaned your head forward and rested your forehead on his shoulder.

"Do you want me to?"

"'Course not."

"So you're happy with the way things are?"

"No," Finally, he rolled over, wrapping his arm around your too-small waist. You ended up with your face against his sternum, mimicking the position you'd taken right after the soul separation. In the back of your mind, you noticed that Sans had ditched the lab coat, which meant that he was entirely naked. It didn't really mean anything to you; after months of sharing a body and mind, you were far beyond the point of getting flustered by each other's nakedness, "...but I think I could be. Eventually."

You nodded, thoughtfully, against his chest. Things were far from perfect, it was true, but that didn't mean they were bad. It had been a long road, but there were good things that had come of it. Orion, though they'd made some mistakes, was a good person at heart. You were glad they'd had the chance to exist, even if it was only for a little while.

Even though Gaster ended up not being who Sans had needed him to be, maybe it was for the best that he knew the truth. At least he could move on from it, now.

And, although Sans' relationship with his brother would never be the same as it was, maybe it could grow to be even better. Not everything was always perfect between the two of them, so maybe a fresh start wasn't the worst thing in the world.

And then… there was you. Did you really want to forget all of this? Alone in your room, you'd thought the answer was yes. But here, in the dark, with your soul and Sans' humming contentedly together… well. It was impossible to let that go. Could you really bring yourself to reset it all? To do it all over again?

...Maybe the only way to win this game was to stop playing.

"Me, too."

.

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((A/N: Welcome to the end of CYB! Worry not, because this story is a trilogy. The last fic will be called "Take a Recount," so keep an eye out for that!

Thanks to all of you who left reviews! It's been fun, and I can't wait to start on the third installment. That said, it might be a couple weeks before I can get going on that one. I have a lot going on in my life and I'll need some time to adjust to all the upcoming changes.

See you later!))


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